


Guardians Never Die

by Matteoarts



Series: Guardians Never Die [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Destiny, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-04-20 16:36:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 66,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4794599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matteoarts/pseuds/Matteoarts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three Guardians are said to have defended humanity and the Traveler in their most dire hour. A Hunter, of flesh and blood, torn from his past into the future. A Titan, of metal and circuit, searching for her true purpose and identity. And a Warlock, born of both Light and Dark, eager to prove herself to her comrades. This is their legend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Legend Begins

_**"Legends are carved across history by the brave."** _

_\- Grimoire of the Guardians_

 

_There are many tales, told throughout the city that speak of Legendary Heroes, Guardians who stood out in history as the most adept_

_warriors the light had ever_ _had the pleasure of shining upon. The Hunter of flesh and blood, his memories bringing knowledge of the_

 _forgotten past. The Titan of metal and circuits, always searching_ _for her purpose and identity. The Warlock born from light and_

 _darkness, always seeking to prove herself to her comrades. But every Legend has a beginning,_ _and these heroes were no exception._

* * *

The scene ahead of the Ghost was that of tragedy, of panic. An old highway from the Golden Age, still packed and blocked with the cars of those who had attempted to escape the collapse, the end of civilization. As she flew closer, she could see that some still contained skeletons within them. One car held two skeletons, a male and female judging from their bone structure. Their skeletal hands still held each other in their final embrace before death. Giving a slight rotation of her rear half, she moved on. She had to stay focused.

As a Ghost of the Traveler, she had to find someone to be her partner, to take on the title of a Guardian. Someone dead, that is. Or she could search in the City, of course. There were plenty of live citizens hoping to have a chance at the recruitment process. The armies of the Fallen were not enough to deter people from their choice to fight back, but it was enough to bolster the courage of volunteers. It'd be easy to venture into the City and simply ask someone if they'd like to become a Guardian. But she had a feeling. Ghosts were able to revive those who had enough light in them when they died, using said light of their souls to regenerate them. Nobody had been revived in quite a while though, it had been nearly a decade since the last one. Very few humans had much light within them to begin with, and it took a soul mostly pure of heart in order to generate enough light to be revived, especially with how long it'd been since the collapse and the rate of deterioration for light. However, when someone with enough light in them WAS revived, and then proceeded to become a Guardian, they usually became the best ones. They learned how to harness the power of the light quicker, how to repel the darkness better, and they were ferocious fighters, always leading the charge on Fallen enemies and opponents of the light. That's what the Ghost wanted, to be the Ghost of someone who would go on to be the best Guardian that there could be. She wanted to be the Ghost that found the next leader of the Vanguards, or something similar.

Unfortunately, it looked like there wasn't much to look at here. Quite a few skeletons, but none had nearly enough internal light to be revived. With an exasperated sigh, she turned to leave, planning to head back to the wall. With some luck, she'd be able to evade the Fallen Pirates, and manage to not be humiliated when she returned without an accompanying Guardian. Everyone had said that it'd be a fool's gambit to think that anymore dead could be revived from the Golden Age, and it looks like they'd been right-

Suddenly, she felt something. It was a warm feeling, as though she'd suddenly floated into a ray of sunshine. She looked around, but couldn't see anything. Finally, she aimed her eye at the ground, and immediately her sensors overloaded. The body and bones had completely disappeared from years of erosion and decomposition, but a soul's presence was still there, burning bright with light. Quite a lot of light, actually. This was the break she'd been hoping for. The Ghost prepared to perform a revival, full of excitement. This individual had obviously been dead for quite a while, and still had managed to retain an enormous amount of light within them. They were bound to be destined for greatness, they had to be!

The Ghost made ready to generate a new body out of the light surrounding the soul, and some extra that she'd stored just in case. Focusing her energy on the soul, she concentrated on harnessing all of her light towards the revival. A blue light began to emanate from the air, and she split into a spherical form to expand the radius of the light a bit. The light grew brighter and brighter, until it looked almost white rather than blue. Suddenly there was a flash, and a human lay on the ground in front of her, wearing a black undersuit and pads of basic armor she'd generated from the surrounding spinmetal. He was a male, likely around twenty years old. This was a good sign, younger usually meant fitter, more physically adequate bodies. She'd have to get him back to the City as fast as possible, or risk him dying again from the Fallen pirates. He began to stir slightly, giving a soft grunt, and she waited for him to wake up.

* * *

 

_**"Our old worlds have grown feral - rabid beasts with teeth of rust and ruin. But such beasts are meant to be tamed. Or broken."** _

_\- Grimoire of the Hunters_

 

 _Hunters stalk the wilderness beyond the City, harnessing the Light to reclaim the secrets of our lost worlds. They are daring_ _scouts_

_and stealthy killers, expert with knives and precision weapons. Hunters blaze their own trails and write their own laws._

* * *

Ow. His head hurt. His arms hurt. His legs hurt. Everything just… hurt. All over, he felt as though his skin had been burned, like he'd stood in the sun too long. But as quickly as the pain had come, it began to fade away. It was replaced with a cool feeling of a breeze on his skin. He was wearing something, he could feel it tight on his body. Some kind of skintight suit. Curious, he wanted to see what the situation was. Ignoring the blinding light of the sun on his eyelids, he forced them open. There was nothing but bright light for a moment, and then his vision began to adjust. He could see trees and grass, he was outside. There were a few rocks nearby and-

He saw the cars. Destroyed, burnt to rubble, rusting away. Hundreds of them. Why were there so many cars that looked so… old? What happened? Where was he-

Things came rushing back to him, flashes of memory. An enormous white orb, the Mars discovery. The technological advances, scientific breakthroughs, human lifespans tripling. He saw it all as it came back to him, along with personal memories. His family, the twins and his parents. His trip to Russia, to meet with a friend of his to go trekking across the country. And he was-

"Guardian?" He heard a voice, feminine, and somewhat robotic sounding. "Eyes up Guardian!" What was this thing she kept calling him? A Guardian? He turned his head to face the voice, and jumped a little. Hovering in front of him was a polygonal, robotic… thing. It wash't a robot, but it wasn't organic either. The front looked somewhat like a star, with four points. When it turned, he could see that there was a reverse side to this thing as well, making it symmetrical. Whatever it was, it was sentient. "It worked… you're alive!" The floating object sounded giddy, as though it were happy. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. He furrowed his eyebrows, and tried again. "He…hello?"

"Oh good, you can talk." Now the object sounded relieved. He didn't like not knowing what was going on. "Who are you?" It turned its blue eye to face him, and rotated its polygonal segments. "I'm a Ghost. Actually, now, I'm your Ghost." It moved a little in the air, still giving off the vibe of just being given a present. "You've been dead a long time, so you're gonna see a lot of things that you won't understand." He looked down at his hands, and flexed them, to make sure they were working. Dead? He couldn't have been dead. It was only a few moments ago that'd he'd been driving down the road towards the highway exit when… when…

The Ghost looked at him, examining him like a child. "Are you alright?" it asked curiously. "There was another car," he said aloud, helping his mind remember the details. "It stopped in front of me, I was forced to pull over. They took me out of the car, and told me they wanted my tech. I gave it to them, all of it. And then…" The Ghost now looked eager for more details. "And then?" He shrank a little, remembering clearly. "And then they stabbed me anyway, and threw my body onto the side of the road. I watched them steal my car and drive away as I… died." He said the last word carefully, as though saying it too recklessly would cause him to do exactly that. He turned to look at the Ghost. "I guess I did die. But how am I back then? Is this the afterlife, or have we found a cure for death now?" The Ghost spun its segments around the spherical blue orb that connected all of it together. "Not exactly a cure, but… I can do something pretty close. Kind of a special case here though, you're the only one I've been able to revive." He looked around the landscape, and began to appreciate the desolateness of it. He saw the bones of those who had fallen, some still in their cars. He shivered a little.

The Ghost eyed him again. "Do you have a name?" He looked at it, confused. Then he realized what it was asking. He struggled to remember. "I'm uh…" It was just out of reach, like a buoy in an stormy ocean. Suddenly it flashed in his mind, and he held onto it like one would a life preserver. "Matt," he said. "My name is Matt." The Ghost moved a little in the gain of this new knowledge. "What's your name?" he asked. It flew back a foot, stunned in light of the question. "Well, I… I'm a Ghost, I don't really have a name. You can give me one if you'd like. You are my Guardian, after all." His eyebrows came together again, scrutinizing this term. "What is it you keep calling me? A Guardian? What is that?" Almost on cue, an animalistic roar sounded off in the distance. It didn't sound too close, but it didn't sound far off either. Matt had no clue what could make that noise, but he didn't want to find out. Apparently the Ghost had the same idea. "I'll explain later, but for now, we need to get you back to the City. To do that, we're gonna need a ship. We are near the Cosmodrome after all, so there should be some kind of ship in there. Probably old though, likely a relic at this point." Matt had no idea when a cosmodrome had been built here, but the Ghost seemed to know what it was doing. It did make him wonder though, how long had he been dead?

The Ghost suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light. A blue grid materialized itself around Matt's head, and turned solid into a helmet. He looked around to see where it had gone. "Don't worry, I'm still with you. I've used some of the surrounding spinmetal to build most of your suit. Quickly, we need to get inside the wall." He didn't know what spinmetal was, but he could see the wall clear as day. It had to be twelve stories high, and he could see that the structure continued for miles. Spying an open door with a staircase roughly 200 yards in front of him, he began to run towards it, meandering through the tight spaces of the jammed cars.

"So," he began, attempting to make conversation, "I can name you, you said?" "If you'd like," said its voice. It seemed to come straight from his mind. It still sounded feminine though. Maybe it was a girl? "Okay, so I need to stop thinking of you as an 'it', and more as a she. You sound like a girl." The voice came back, this time sounding a bit short. "Well, I'd hope so. I  _am_  female, after all." Excellent, he'd guessed right. "So a ghost… ghost like a banshee, or like, a holy ghost, from the bible?" It was becoming impatient with his banter. "I am a Ghost, and I used the power of the light to bring you back from the dead. Whatever category that falls in." "Holy ghost it is then…" he muttered. He walked through the building, his footsteps impacting against the metal floor. "I can think of a few things off the bat, in that case. There's Angel, though I think that's a bit cliché. Mary, mother of Jesus, but that sounds a bit too… human for you I guess." The Ghost said nothing, listening to him. "So that leaves me with Seraph, or Gabriel, and Gabriel doesn't sound too feminine." "The first one," said the Ghost. "What was it again?" "Seraph?" he asked. "It's the highest in the hierarchy of angels. You like that?" It was silent for a moment, and then responded, "Yes, I do. You may call me Seraph." "Excellent, now I can say something other than just 'Ghost'," he said.

Matt stepped into an open room. Shadows assaulted him, blinding him to anything else in there. He could hear a few clangs as something metal in the darkness above fell below into the void. "Fallen thrive in the dark, we won't. I need to find us more light." Seraph instantly materialized in front of him, and began to emit a white glow, like a flashlight. She flew off into the distance, and Matt saw that the chamber was at least a few hundred feet in length, with maybe a depth of forty feet below him and sixty feet above him from his balcony. He watched as she stopped at a panel on a wall, and a blue beam blazed from her center. It hit the panel, and he assumed it was messing with the power source. Sure enough, the large lights overhead came on, and illuminated a terrifying scene.

Creatures with four arms hung from the ceiling, on pillars in the chamber, and from just about everywhere else in the building. They wore red garments, and shouted in a foreign tongue. There were so many, he couldn't even hope to count them all. He glanced back to Seraph, and saw two flying drones chasing her through the air. "Fallen!" she cried. He would have usually retorted with something sarcastic due to the obviousness of her statement, but he still remained in awe at the sheer number of them. Seraph flew down to him, having lost the two drones. "Quick, through here! I can see a rifle on the floor!" She opened a mechanical door that slid upward into the ceiling. He slid under it and saw the rifle she was talking about. He picked it up, and felt the weight of it, bracing himself to fire. It wasn't unlike the automatic rifles he'd had experience with in his time, and he was used to how it felt. He sprinted through the corridors, frantically trying to reach an exit. Two of the fallen jumped in front of him. He shouldered the rifle, and pulled the trigger. Luckily there were still bullets in the magazine. The projectiles ripped through their bodies, and they fell with consecutive thumps. Another at the end of the hallway attempted to fire on him. This one was missing its two bottom arms, with stumps instead and little caps over the severed limbs. Aiming again, he let off a few shots. The Fallen's head exploded in a shower of white, with some ethereal vapor trailing from the hole in it's neck. The body slumped to the ground, and did not move. Stepping over the corpse, Matt continued on.

It took him a while, but managing to evade most of the Fallen took some effort. He finally reached the exit through a broken wall in a large tunnel. He stepped out into the sun again, and saw that it was beginning to set. "Alright Seraph, where's this ship of ours?" A pulsing green light emitted itself on his helmet's HUD, until Seraph said, "Through that building over there. I'm detecting low levels of energy from a vessel. It's not gonna be enough to break orbit, but it can get us to the City." A grey objective marker appeared on his screen near the doorway of the building. Once again, he entered a full sprint, only pausing to acknowledge a red flare that shot into the sky. "What's that?" "A signal," replied Seraph. "The Fallen are pirates. Any kind of technology they can get their hands on, including me, is a profit for them." He smiled. "Well, don't worry. They'd have to get through me first." Suddenly the air in the sky began to ripple as light bent around it, and what was presumably a Fallen ship appeared in the air. "I know! That's what I'm afraid of!" exclaimed Seraph, now with worry in her voice. "Move!"

Not needing to be told twice, he continued to run towards the building. He cleared the doorway, and entered a hallway that took him to a large room. The floor was almost completely dirt, but sure enough, a space-faring ship was entangled in some wires. He recognized the model too. Seraph appeared. "We're lucky the Fallen haven't completely picked it clean, this thing's ancient already. It's-" "An Arcadia Class Jumpship," Matt finished. Seraph spun quickly in place to stare at him, alarmed at something. "You know this model?" A roar echoed from behind them as the Fallen began to enter the building. "Seraph, if you're gonna do something, do it now!" He could see her disappear, and begin to power the ship up. Blue lights winked on along the sides, and an orange glow emitted from the engines. The wires holding it began to snap, and suddenly it was free. "Bringing you in now," he heard Seraph say. Turning, he saw two of the four armed Fallen about twenty feet behind him, having just entered the room. Behind them stood a massive one, standing around nine feet high, and looking tougher than a tank. This one's armor was different, and it held a mean looking cannon in its hands. Just as it growled at him, he saw blue grid lights glow around him, and the next thing he saw was the interior of the ship. "Hang tight!" Seraph said over the comms. The ship raised itself out of the crumbling building, and blasted off without a second glance at the Fallen behind them.

* * *

_**"Strive for honor. Stand for hope."** _

_\- Grimoire of the Titans_

 

 _Titans are warriors - heroic defenders of the Light, channeling the gifts of the Traveler to wage war on the Darkness._ _Steadfast and_

_sure, Titans face any challenge head-on, blunt force instruments of the Traveler's will._

* * *

A Ghost floated through the City outskirts. Just on the boundary of the Traveler's protection, spinmetal was abundant. It was used for crafting weaponry, armor, and a handful of other useful items. Fortunately the material was so plentiful that the City never truly had a shortage, and they took advantage of the fact. They sent out inactive Ghosts, Ghosts without a Guardian, to harvest the plants and bring them back to the tower for supplies. This particular Ghost was not alone, and a few other Ghosts could be seen nearby, absorbing the spinmetal growing out of just about any metal source available, wreckage from crashed vessels, spent ammunition casing, even the shell of a long since deactivated missile. He was nearly full on his quota, and would only need to find a few more specimens before beginning his journey back to the City. He detected a large quantity a few yards to his right next to a run down shack, and promptly hovered over. The plant was somewhat thick, and he began to harvest it in large amounts. Suddenly, he stopped.

After absorbing some of the spinmetal, he was able to make out the shape of a face, metallic and rusting. Clearing away more of the spinmetal, he eventually discovered an entire body that had been hidden behind the foliage. Its limbs were robotic, composed of metal sheets and circuits. It was definitely an Exo, though why an Exo was so far out here, he had no idea. What was more, he saw that it was a female model. Large chunks of vital components in the torso were missing, and chunks of the head looked as though they'd been completely blown off. The spinmetal grew from inside the body, wrapping around machinery and puncturing outer seals until it reached the sunlight. The Ghost detected something else as well; light. This Exo was definitely not a stranger to the Traveler, and though he did have a mission, he couldn't just leave it out here.

"What's going on over there?" One of the other Ghosts had called out, and began to make its way towards him. "I found an old Exo," the first Ghost replied, "I'm going to try to revive it."

"Don't be daft," scolded the second. "We don't have nearly enough components to even get that hunk of machinery to keep functioning, should you manage to revive it in the first place. Exos don't just rely on light, you know. It'd probably fall apart as soon as it was reborn." The Ghost flew back to its business, leaving the first to realize it was right, that they didn't have any kind of components they could use to replace the damaged ones inside, or any supplies to repair the metal sheets on the outside. He sadly began to float away, until he realized that he DID have resources available to him. He would be disobeying his current mission, but an exception could perhaps be made this once for the exchange of a new Guardian. He retreated back to the Exo body and absorbed the rest of the spinmetal inside, until not one circuit was entangled in the leaves. Then, he began the process to revive the Exo.

"What are you doing?!" he heard the Ghost from earlier yelp. He paid it no mind, and concentrated on using the light of the Exo to revive the life within it. He could see lights start to glow on various electronic lights throughout the "skin", but they wouldn't be able to be sustained without proper vital components. Then came the second phase of his attempt, using the spinmetal he'd harvested from today to begin building new working components, and materialize them within the skeletal body. The lights began to wink out, and then came back brighter than before. He continued to dissolve the damaged circuits inside, and immediately replace them with brand new ones. His body expanded, allowing a larger radius of his light to shine on the Exo. The glow around the Exo grew brighter, until it stopped and began to fade. The "skin" lights remained on, and he could see that it was activated.

He heard the sound of rusty metal grating against more rusty metal, and he moved in to dissolve what rust he could from the metal shell. Eventually he had removed most of what he could, and the inorganic being began to move. She raised herself up on one knee, and from a kneeling position, moved into a standing pose. She glanced around, and saw the Ghost hovering around her. He made note of her appearance. Though the rusty red color still added a small filter to most of her body, he could see that her original color had been a mixture of white and silver, with silver covering most of the body including all of the head, and white adding in secondary highlights along the body, arms, and legs. Her eyes were a piercing cool blue, with small auras of light emitting from the electronic lenses.

She made a movement with her mouth as though to speak, but nothing came out of her vocal speakers except garbled white noise. "Oops, my bad," said the Ghost apologetically, and he moved in to scan her vocal processors and clean out the gunk that had accumulated on them, muffling her speech. When all of the resin had been cleared, he flew back, and looked expectantly at her again. She made another attempt.

"Tha- thank you." The ghost closed his eye and angled himself slightly, akin to a bow. The other Ghosts simply looked on in amazement. "It was my pleasure, Guardian." Her eyes blinked a few times, attempting to focus on him. "Guardian? Is that my name?" The floating polyhedron chuckled ever so slightly. "No, it's what you are. It's more of a title than a name, a job."

"A job? What kind of job?" "Why, to protect the City and its people, of course! To use the light of the Traveler to fight against the Darkness!" The Ghost stared into her face, and saw no sign of recognition. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know about any of that. All I remember is-" She stopped, and grew wide eyed. "I- I can't remember! I don't remember anything, where I am, what I was doing, who-" Now she sounded frightened. "I don't even know who  _I_  am!" The Ghost moved towards her, in an attempt to calm her down. "Hey, it's alright. It's probably normal for someone who was in your condition to not have any memory. With the amount of rust and scarring you had on your body, I'd say that you've been sitting out here for quite few years. And with the amount of components in your head I had to replace, I wouldn't be too hopeful that long term memory will return at all." He hovered a moment, then probed a bit, to see what she  _did_  know. "Do you know who you are? What I am?" She pondered a moment. "I know that I'm an Exo, a robotic organism designed by-" She struggled for a moment, then continued. "-humans. That's it, humans, the creators made of flesh and bone." She looked back at the Ghost. "That's about it, I'm afraid. I'm not sure what you are, or what this Traveler of yours is." He rotated his body segments. "That's a shame, because from all the battle damage your exoskeleton- no pun intended- has suffered, I'd say you fell in a skirmish, likely fighting for the Traveler. But if it's been as many years as I think it may have been, I doubt anyone will recognize you. I think it's kind of saddening that you can't remember the very thing you may have been fighting for." She just stared blankly at him.

"Ah well. I suppose you'll have to find a name for yourself, people can't just call you 'the Exo'." He began to float away, and he heard her footsteps trailing behind him. "So where do we go?" she asked. He eagerly flew to the top of the hill obstructing the sight he wanted her to witness. "We'll we've got a long way to go…" She jogged up the hill, and upon reaching the top, looked out on the horizon and gasped. "But we're heading to the Last City on Earth, under the Traveler." She saw an enormous white orb hovering over the surface of the Earth, heavily scarred and damaged on it's underside. Tiny pinpricks of light winked in and out of existence in the night sky around it, and as her sight panned downwards, she spied a large city underneath it, maybe fifteen miles from her, and at the forefront was an unbelievably tall tower, it's top extending into the clouds above, like a hand reaching for the silent moon-like structure that watched over all of it.

"What is it? How- how did it get here?" Her jaw was lowered in awe of the god that loomed over the landscape. "That's a question you'll have to ask the Speaker about. C'mon, we're not going to reach the Traveler by staring at it." The Ghost began to fly towards the City, and with nowhere else to go, the Exo followed him, intent on finding out some answers for herself.

* * *

_**"We have found new ways to weaponize curiosity. Pathways into the darkness."** _

_\- Grimoire of the Warlocks_

 

_Warrior-scholars of the Light, Warlocks devote themselves to understanding the Traveler and its power. A Warlock's mind is_

_an_ _arsenal of deadly secrets, balanced between godhood and madness. On the battlefield, those secrets can shatter reality itself._

* * *

"Aria! I will not ask you again, come down for supper!" Aria cringed at the commanding nature of her mother's voice. Knowing that her patience was wearing thin, Aria gave a small sigh and closed the book she'd been studying out of. She took one last look out of her window, staring at the beautiful sight she had from her window of the Traveler hovering over the City, and made her way downstairs.

She brushed her Lilac colored hair behind her, back into the "punk" sort of hairstyle that she had, and descended the steps towards the dining room. "Mom, you know that I've been trying to study for my evaluations, why do you keep bothering me?" Her mother glared at her sternly, her emerald green eyes blazing with authority. "You are not of age yet, young lady, and until you are, you follow my rules. And my rules state that we eat together as a family." Aria groaned. Her mother refused to acknowledge that Aria was turning of age tomorrow, and would be given a light evaluation that she'd been requesting from the vanguards for nearly half a year. She'd had to wait until she turned eighteen until she could even be considered for possible guardianship.

It was her dream to become a Guardian, to become one of the legendary saviors of humanity- and the other migrant Awoken families as well, such as her own. Her grandparents had left the Reef to live on Earth many years ago, and they'd lived out their lives raising her mother, until they'd passed on and her mother had eventually met her father and thus she'd been born. Considering she and her parents had been born on Earth, the normal humans here were much more accepting of them than the Awoken in the reef would have been, had they tried to return. They only cared for other Reef-born Awoken, and considered everyone else an outsider. Not that she was complaining, she liked her life here on Earth, and she was excited to have the chance to repay the City for the generosity that her own family had been granted so many years before.

If the Traveler chose her as a potential Guardian, she'd be welcomed to the Tower, where she would live, fight, and save humanity alongside other Guardians. With the background that the subspecies of Awoken had, they were naturally more in tune with the light having been changed by it so many centuries before, and she was studying to become a Warlock, one of the three available classes of Guardians. With her adept skills at using the light due to being an awoken, she was a prime candidate for the Warlock class, and she studied the arts of these particular Guardians, from their walking on the path of the Void, to small magical abilities they were able to perform. She wasn't nearly strong enough in her studies to harness the sheer power of the Void like Warlocks could, but she was able to channel the light to an extent. She'd often entertain her human friends with small light shows, as wavy beams of purple light danced around her hands and through the air in front of her. Small things like that.

Taking her seat at the table, she gazed over at her Father. She shared his ice-blue eyes, much unlike her mother's green ones, though. He approved of her decision to join the Guardians, and believed it a worthy cause. Her mother however, only thought of the safety of her daughter, and it was a common topic of arguments amongst them. Hoping to avoid another outburst before tomorrow, Aria began to eat her food, intent on not giving her mother any chance to dash her hopes before tomorrow came. Though she felt bad for not talking with her mother the day before she left the house, she knew that if her mother started a discussion, there'd be no end to the arguing until the last possible second. At least peace and quiet was better than hurtful words and shouting.

Dinner was uneventful, and passed by in silence. When she finished her meal, Aria walked over to the sink, washed her dish, and ascended back up the stairs to her room. She heard a loud sigh from her mother downstairs before she closed the door, and she was left alone with her thoughts. She sat down on her bed, opened her book back up, and began to read about the concentration required to summon power directly from the Void, and the care one must take to discern between the powers of the Light and the Dark.


	2. First Steps of a Journey

Matt woke up, for the second time that day.

He checked out his surroundings. He was still in the cockpit of the Arcadia ship. He watched stormy clouds fly past the plexiglass windows, disappearing as quickly as they came into view. From the color of the sky around the ship, he guessed that night had descended on the planet, meaning it'd been a few hours since he and Seraph had taken off in flight from the Cosmodrome.

"About time you woke up," he heard the familiar feminine voice say from somewhere above his head. Looking upwards, he saw her materialize in the air and stare back down at him. "I thought that it wouldn't take too long to reach the city," he said, trying to avoid a tone of accusation.

"Originally, I thought so," she replied, "but then I realized this ship doesn't have any warp drive. We've been having to fly at normal speed for a while. Though with the condition this old hunk of junk is in, I'd imagine it wouldn't have been a good idea for us to warp anyway." Her eye tracked around the interior, as though it was repulsed by the ship's poor condition. Then she focused back on him.

"Speaking of this ship, how did you know it was an Arcadia class?" She zoomed down in front of his face, her polygonal segments twitching slightly. "Arcadia class Jumpships haven't been around since the very beginning of the Golden Age. After that, all records show they were replaced with better, more technologically advanced vessels." She seemed curious about something. "How old  _are_  you?"

Matt thought about the question seriously. "Well, I know I was alive in the time of the Mars discovery. I was young, maybe eight or nine? Anyway, the year then was 2037." He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to focus on his memories. "It was the biggest event in humanity's history, finding not just simple alien life, but the being that we dubbed the Traveler. It followed the expedition team back to Earth, and sparked a wealth of technological advances. Medical science came up with new cures every day, our estimated lifespan tripled from the Traveler exposing us to some pure form of energy and preserving our physical bodies, I remember people calling it-" "Light," Seraph interrupted, "it is called light." He stared at her for a moment, and then shrugged and continued on with his story.

"Anyway, that's about it. All of our technology became incredibly advanced from studying the Traveler, but that's all I know. It was in my lifetime over a decade before I bit the dust to those car-jackers." He studied his body, still marveling at how the young Ghost beside him had managed to regenerate his entire body. "That would make me around nineteen or twenty years old." Seraph's eye flashed. "You don't know how old you are?" "Well I've got most of my big memories, the obvious ones. But specifics are a bit fuzzy. I can't remember my exact birthdate, but I can do basic math from the amount of years that passed in my life."

Seraph began to fly around the cabin of the ship. "I can't believe…from before the Golden Age…! It's a miracle that I was even able to revive you, so much time has passed." "Wait," he started, "how much time  _has_  passed, exactly?" Seraph looked at him, and though he couldn't accurately read emotions from her, she seemed sympathetic in her voice. "You'd have to ask the Speaker for a more accurate answer, but it's been at least a few centuries. The Golden Age lasted for around three centuries according to our records, but you were from right before the Golden Age, and after the Golden Age came the Collapse, an extremely long period of darkness and despair, we still don't have proper records of it. I guess I'm trying to tell you that, it's been a  _very_  long time."

He felt as though he'd been punched in the gut. Three centuries at least, plus a period of time that Seraph didn't even know how long it had existed for. He breathed in and out a few times, a calming technique he'd learned from- somewhere, he couldn't remember exactly. After his breathing became regular again, he sat up in his chair, and gazed over at Seraph.

"Obviously, I'm not getting any part of my old life back. That's a given. So I guess my only option is to become a Guardian, like you said. That's still an option, right?" Seraph nodded vigorously in the air. "Oh yes. With the amount of light you have within you, it'd be foolish of the Vanguards not to make a Guardian out of you." He smiled. "And you'll be my partner?" "More or less," she replied. "I will assist you on all of your journey. It would be my honor to be your Ghost." "Great, it'd be fun to have you around," he said, turning back to the viewing glass, "so long as you're not messing up and triggering alarms and whatnot."

Without warning, the clouds cleared. Though the night made the sky a dark indigo all around, there were spots of light, all clustered together that he could see on the ground. And they illuminated something…

"Welcome to the Last City, Matt." Seraph piloted the ship closer towards the group of lights, and Matt saw clearly that it  _was_  a city, of massive scale. It stretched for a few miles at least, and all of the lights from the city shone up at the sky, and illuminated the underside of the pearl white orb that hovered over it all. "The Traveler's still around?" he asked incredulously, believing the large sphere would have moved on by now. "Yes, surprisingly." He could see long black marks and scars along the bottom, evidence of a brutal attack. It looked like a predator had clawed the underside away, ripping away large chunk and pieces, and leaving it scratched up. It made him wonder what had happened to it. He didn't remember any kind of attack on the Traveler in his time, so it must have happened during the Collapse that Seraph had talked about. He'd have to ask the person she'd mentioned before, the Speaker, about it.

The ship flew closer and closer until it came to an immensely large structure, a tower that stood high above the rest of the city. "What is that?" "That's the Tower," came the reply. "It's where the Guardians live." "Couldn't have come up with a more artistic name than 'tower'?" he muttered. The Jumpship flew past the tower, and then began to turn in a 180 degree maneuver. It hovered closer to the tower until it floated around thirty feet above the tiled roof. Suddenly he saw the same blue gird lights flash around his body as Seraph began to teleport him. The next thing he felt was his feet hitting the marble ground, and as the lights cleared and Jumpship flew off, he saw a courtyard of sorts. Other people wandered around the area, some with strange armor, some with robes. Some had their helmets off and he saw even stranger sights, human like people with blue or purple skin, and vibrant, colorful glowing eyes. Robotic beings walking and talking as people did. They almost seemed like something similar from his past, but he delayed trying to remember. He wanted to enjoy what he was seeing. "Like what you see?" Seraph had materialized just above and forward of his right shoulder. "It's incredible," he breathed, in awe and appreciation of the architectural miracle before him.

"Come on," she said. She flew a few feet towards a staircase on the left, that led up to a a balcony with several doorways leading into the side of the tower. "You can rest a few hours in a spare room here. There's always a few empty dorms in the case of new Guardians without any living quarters. Tomorrow morning, we'll talk to the Vanguards." He followed behind her at a leisurely pace. "Why do we need to talk to these… Vanguard people?" "Well, believe it or not, you're the first person, human or awoken wise, that's been revived in nearly nine years. Many thought that all revivable souls had either been brought back already, or had deteriorated to the point of being unrevivable with time wasting away the souls' light." She spun around to face him, still floating backwards as she did so. "But here you are! I had hoped I'd be the one to perform the next revival. Most Ghosts do, and they usually have a trip or two of attempting to find someone before returning to the city and choosing from amongst the city's volunteers." He walked up the stairs as she spoke, and arrived on top of the balcony. "In addition to that, you're from before the Golden Age, meaning that perhaps you can shed some knowledge of what happened before the Collapse to the Vanguards and the Speaker. They're always trying to find out more information, and you are a  _very_  valuable source."

Entering a doorway on the balcony, Matt walked down a hallway until Seraph selected a room at random. He gripped the handle, and pushed the door open. The interior of the room was simple, almost spartan like. There was no real decor, just plain white walls, two separate beds, and a bathroom. He supposed they were attempting to fashion basic quarters, and cut down on storage. "Sorry, about the living space," his Ghost friend apologized, "but I figured that you just needed a quick rest. After we talk to the Vanguards, you can find a permanent living space on one of the tower's lower floors." "Don't worry about it," he said, "this is fine. I just need a good nap…" He repeated the statement in his mind, and chuckled a moment. "Funny, you'd think I wouldn't sleep again after having slept a few centuries." Without another word, he walked over to the far bed, and sat down on the blankets. He removed his helmet, and set it on the ground next to the bed. He moved into a lying down position, and passed out as soon as his eyes closed.

Seraph watched him as he slept, and felt happy. Not only had she had the best luck in finding a Guardian partner to revive, but he could be an amazing potential bank of knowledge for the city to more know about their ancestors. She felt happy, and considered her day a success. She settled down on a nightstand next to the bed, and prepared to deactivate for the night, eager to get to work tomorrow.

* * *

 

"Okay, how about Blue?" "For what? How does that make any sense?" "Your eyes, they're blue. I'm just shooting off suggestions here."

The Exo rolled her aforementioned eyes to the best of her capability. The Ghost's conversation with her for the last fifteen miles to the Tower in the City had consisted of him attempting to come up with a name for her. She was secretly thinking of what she would eventually call him, but at least she didn't voice every suggestion aloud. She now stood in an elevator that had been ascending the tower for nearly five minutes, with her Ghost zipping about the enclosed space. She hoped the journey was worth it.

"Okay, I can see you don't like that… hmmm." The single-eyed machine floated in the air, as though pondering. "Well, you were brought back from the dead. How about Phoenix? They're mythical birds that were reborn from their ashes every time that they died." She just stared at him, with a metallic eyebrow cocked. "Really? I'm not going to take the name of a magic chicken." She looked away, until she had an idea. "But hey, reborn from the ashes… Ash doesn't sound too bad." She turned to gaze back at the Ghost. "How's that? You think that's any good?" The Ghost bobbed up and down in the air, the equivalent of a nod. "Oh yes, I like that a lot. I knew I was bound to help you come up with  _something_. Smart as a whip, they call me." "Really?" She grinned at her enthusiastic savior. "Well then that's what  _I_  will name  _you_. Whip. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" He spun in a circular loop, obviously excited about the progress. She laughed. "Alright then, Ash and Whip it is. An Exo and a Ghost, ready to take on the world."

As if on cue, the elevator stopped, and opened its doors. In front of them was a hallway. Turning to the left, she could see a glass door that led outside, to a balcony. She walked over and pushed the door outward.

After she'd stepped into the night's breeze, she began to take in the sight around her. Other people, ones that she presumed to be Guardians, bustled around the tower. Some laughed in the courtyard, enjoying small talk and reliving past experiences. She saw one woman raise her arms up and make a face, imitating an enemy she had fought. Turning her gaze she saw that there were quite a few serious Guardians as well, people who walked from mission to mission, their features stony and hard. She didn't yet understand what could change the laughing ones so drastically into the solemn faces she saw, but she guessed that being a Guardian wasn't all fun and exploration as her Ghost had made it out to be.

Whip hovered over her shoulder as she looked at a staircase that descended into a lower level. "That's the Hall of Guardians. It's where the Vanguards usually reside, planning every move of this war." She looked at him curiously. "Who are the Vanguards?" He emitted a soft beep, as though he were embarrassed. "That's right, I forgot to tell you! Well see, there are three classes of Guardians, Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans."

This was all new information to her. "Really? What's the difference?" "Quite large, actually," said her robot companion. She could tell he was trying to not sound condescending or frustrated. "Hunters are kind of rogue-like individuals. They track down their enemies and kill without mercy. Not to say all Hunters are heartless…" Whip looked down at the courtyard. "…But all of them are scary for sure."

"Warlocks are scholars first, soldiers second. They study the light's properties for years, and are able to harness and channel the light through their bodies with their mind. It's quite complicated to explain, but they are, in layman's terms, wizards. They conjure the power of the Traveler as though they were spells."

"And the last?" she asked. "Titans are kind of like the official soldiers of the Traveler, its defenders of the light. They watch over the city and its people, defiant to the end. If Hunters cut through enemies like scalpels, then it could be said that Titans bash through theirs like a hammer." Ash liked the sound of that, demolishing enemies with pure force.

"In any matter, we'll talk with the Vanguards tomorrow morning. It's getting late, and though you may not need sleep the way a human would, deactivating for the night would definitely help with your awareness tomorrow. You've had an eventful day." Nodding her head, Ash followed Whip back into the doorway, and down the corridor. He stopped next to a room, and she held onto the handle, swinging it open.

The first thing she noticed when she entered were the two beds, and one of them was already occupied. A human male was lying down on the far bed, wearing a skintight black undersuit, with basic padded armor on his torso, arms, and legs. His hair was somewhat short, darkish brown, and his skin was a very light, tannish color. She looked down at her own body, made of metal and circuitry. The Ghost had done a good job of getting rid of most of the rust, but she would still need a cleaning tomorrow, assuming they were available in the tower. She walked around the closer bed, and felt her foot hit something. Looking down, she saw that she'd bumped the guy's helmet. She stepped around it, careful not to make any noise, and laid down on the unoccupied bed. Turning her head to the left, she saw Whip fly onto the nightstand, next to another Ghost, presumably the guy's. She watched Whip's light fade out from its usual blue glow, and a small automatic window closed over the eye, much like an eyelid shutting. Pulling the blankets over her form, she began to go into standby mode. She shut down her optic receptors, and waited for her mechanical mind to cease its thought process. Slowly, she felt herself slip away into peaceful darkness.

* * *

 

Aria slowly opened her eyes. The sunlight shining through her window and onto her face where she lay on her bed was blinding, and she resisted the urge to shut her eyes again. Turning her head away from the window, her vision adjusted to the bright environment. What time was it? There was something she needed to do…

With a gasp, she sat up in bed. She looked over at her alarm clock which should have gone off-

Her alarm clock was missing.

Swearing, she made the connection that her mother must have taken the damn thing in order to make her late for her evaluation. Luckily she still had her wrist interface. Raising it up to her face, she saw that it was nearly ten in the morning. With another expletive, she flew out of her bed and pulled her clothing off, hurrying to dress properly for the test. After she'd found suitable garments in her dresser, a pair of black pants and a short blue coat, she quickly pulled them over her nude form. She was dressed in record time, eager to make sure that she made it to the tower entrance before her scheduled appointment at ten thirty.

She ran down the staircase, her feet moving as fast as she could get them to. Her father, cleaning up the dining table downstair, gave her a bewildered look. "Where've you been? I thought you had your Guardian evaluation today-" 'Well," she interrupted as she made it to the bottom step and began to pass him on her way to the door, "I wouldn't be late if  _someone_  hadn't stolen my alarm to sabotage me!" She saw him quickly glare at her mother, who was now trying very hard to not look into her husband's gaze, and avoid looking suspicious simultaneously. Aria ran out the door before the argument could happen, and sprinted down the cobbled street towards the tower.

A morning mist was creeping its way through the alleyways, creating a beautiful scene between sun and fog, and she noticed how she would have taken better appreciation of it had she not been in such a rush. The narrow urban pathways and roads along with the compact buildings adorning the sides reminded her of several places she'd read about in history books, notably of ancient cities with names like Israel, and Jerusalem. Makeshift roofs made of cloth and fabric were strung from rooftops across the street, to provide moderate cover from the weather for pedestrians. She loved the look of it in her own way, and she had spent many days as a child running through the alleyways, navigating around the environment as she'd climbed walls, and buildings to reach her destinations. Today was a day for speed, however, and she was forced to take the straightforward street of cobblestone. It ran directly to the tower in the case that some kind of hazard were to become harmful to those living in the city, and a safe haven needed to be established.

Even at her fast pace, she made it to to the Tower with only three minutes left until her meeting. She stopped at the entryway and began to gasp for air, trying to force oxygen into her lungs. She was still panting and attempting not to retch, when she heard a synthetic voice to her right exclaim, "Oh! Are you alright?" Ceasing her recover for a moment, she looked up to see a Ghost hovering above her, looking down at her embarrassing situation. Trying not to blanch, she stood straight up into a professional stance, and fixed her hair back behind her and to the side. "Yes, I'm quite alright thank you." "Well I'm glad to hear that," said the Ghost, "wouldn't want you getting sick right here at the entrance would we?" It flew around her head a moment, and then stopped in front of her, facing her once more. "I'm looking for a possible Guardian recruit, named Aria Sorentine? Are you her?" At the Ghost's question, Aria realized that the Ghost was the one she was supposed to be meeting with for her light evaluation, and her cheeks grew pink from the thought of the one in charge of her potential career seeing her in such a bad shape. "Y- yes, that's me. I apologize for nearly being late, but I had a, umm…" She searched for the proper word. "…domestic dispute."

The Ghost rotated both of its four pointed segments, twirling in the air, as though it were analyzing her, deeming whether or not she was a worthy candidate.

"It's no trouble at all, really. Protocol stated you needed to be here by ten thirty, and you are here, are you not?" She assumed this was the Ghost's way of giving her an out. "Yes, I suppose you're right." She gave the Ghost a smile of humility, and waited to see what it would do. It continued to rotate and twitch until it said, "Come, let's head up to the roof of the Tower. The Vanguards prefer to see the assessments firsthand." Aria almost let her jaw drop out of shock, she'd had no idea that she'd be meeting with the  _Vanguards!_ Quickly, she could feel her confidence slipping away. Who was she to be judged amonst them, the mightiest Guardians shone upon by the Traveler's light?

The Ghost looked at her curiously. "Are you sure you're alright? You look a bit off balance, if I may say." Though she now felt unprepared, Aria wasn't going to give up her chance to become a Guardian. "Yes, I said I'm fine. Shall we go?"

Her evaluator gave her an odd look, and then floated towards the entrance, waiting for her to enter one of several doors. She selected one, pulled it ajar, and entered the lobby, the Ghost trailing behind her.

The lobby of the tower was not a foreign place to her, as she had accompanied her father her many times as a child when he had business endeavors to attend to. Her father worked with several groups of the city's militia, constantly looking for cracks in the security around the city. It wasn't terribly dangerous, but she did remember becoming frightened as a child that some Fallen Vandal would find them as they worked in the city boundaries, and end him. In any matter, her father had always reported here to the tower when he found something undesirable in the city's defenses. She spied a Frame, one of the many robotic assistants in the City, working as a receptionist at the main counter in the back of the lobby. Frames were robotic and metal-made, like Exos, but unlike Exos they weren't really people. Frames were more like droids, with programmed personalities and behaviors, versus the Exos who had souls, and could actually feel emotion. How anyone had created living machines that could experience emotion, Aria had no clue, but those were the Traveler's miracles she supposed.

Walking towards the counter, she flagged the attention of the Frame. "Hello!" It turned to face her, and greeted her. "Greetings, I am Reed-103. How may I serve you today?" It's voice was thick with electronic filters, but it sounded helpful enough. "I've got an appointment for a light evaluation, this Ghost says I need to find the Vanguards. Do you know where I need to go?"

"Why yes," replied the Frame, "Just down the main hall behind the counter here, there should be a series of elevators. Select one and take it to the roof. The Vanguards will be located in the Hall of Guardians." Finished helping Aria, Reed-103 turned back to the paperwork that he'd been attending to before she'd called his attention. Happy that she knew where she needed to go, she looked to the side of the counter's back wall, to see an opening, around the size of a doorway. Walking through, she saw that it opened into another lobby, filled with elevators down the sides. She guessed that since the tower was so tall, it probably took a while to reach floors, hence the need for many elevators, so that people weren't constantly waiting for one. These elevators looked sturdy, with glass doors on the front. Since the shafts they used were transparent for the most parts, there were patches of the shaft that you could see out of, and gaze at the landscape, when other floors and various structure wasn't blocking the view. Choosing the first open one on her left, she hopped into the mechanism, and pressed a large button labeled "Top Floor". Apparently, people needed to go there often, and couldn't be bothered with looking for the specific floor amongst all the other possible levels.

The elevator doors shut, and the box began its ascent. It was much faster than other elevators, though that was to be expected with a structure of this height. Aria leaned against the side of the glass, and waited to reach the roof.

* * *

 

"Matt! Matt!" He heard Seraph's voice whispering to him from the depths of sleep. Groggily, he opened his eyes.

She was hovering over him, and had obviously been waiting for him to wake up. "I think we should go, we're not exactly alone in this room." Wondering what she was talking about, he turned to look at the other bed. The aforementioned bed, which had been perfectly unoccupied the night before, now contained one of the metallic humanoids he'd seen on the Tower when he first arrived. "What are those things, Seraph?" She turned to look at him. "Those  _things_  are Exos, and they have feelings. Just as much as any other living being." He felt his heart pound in his chest. " _That's_  an  _Exo_?!" he asked incredulously. Seraph stared at him curiously. "Well, yes. Do you know what they are?" "I know about the early prototypes," he replied, "the Exo project was one of the first things that humanity attempted to create when we were presented with the Traveler's technological advances. We'd always dreamed of creating an AI in our image, artificial beings that could think and feel, but until the Traveler came, we'd never dreamed of having the proper capability. I had no idea that they'd succeeded in making them, I guess I died before it happened." He sat up in his bed, and looked back to Seraph. "So they can think for themselves, and can feel emotion? They live?" "Yes," she replied, "and this one is attempting to get some rest. We need to go."

"Just hang on a minute," he said. "I need to see the machinery, seriously it's a work of art!" Before Seraph could protest, Matt had walked to the other bed and pulled the covers off of the Exo's body. The first thing he noticed was the slight rusty color of the metal, but he didn't know where this thing had been, so he ignored it. He looked at the torso and its silver and white color scheme covering the mechanical components inside. Though it was obviously forged from metal, he couldn't help but think that it was an incredible blend of life and machine, and looked very human like. That's when he noticed the second thing, that it was very obviously female. The robotic limbs of the Exo widened at the hips like a woman, and there was more emphasis on the breast area in terms of metal sheeting.

"Uh, Matt…?" came Seraph's voice. He finally noticed the third thing; that the Exo's blue eyes were open and staring at him wide eyed.

"Jeez!" he yelled, and stepped away from the Exo. She in turn yelped a little and pulled the covers back onto herself. "What are you, some kind of pervert? I'm  _nude!_ " she exclaimed. Matt just stared at her face blankly, not comprehending. "But… you're made of metal! You don't have anything to hide!" She looked down at the covers hiding her body, then back up at him. " _So?_  I can't have a little privacy? Please leave so that I can change in peace and not have some stranger gawking at me!"

"Alright, I'm going! For God's sake…" With an exasperated sigh, he bent down to pick up his helmet, and left the room.

Closing the door behind him, he stepped out into the hallway and- WHAM!

He felt himself falling to the side, having been hit by something on his right. After he pushed himself up onto his elbows, he saw that one of the light-blue skinned humans had run into him, and had been rushing down the hallway at a speedy pace. He heard the sound of elevator doors shutting, and looked at the young girl's face as she stared back at him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" The poor girl looked so embarrassed, he felt bad for her. "Ah, don't worry. Bad days happen to us all, kid." After standing, he helped her up from her kneeling position. He held out his hand to shake hers. "I'm Matt."

She gripped his hand with hers, and looked him in the eye. "Aria, Aria Sorentine. It's a pleasure to meet you Matt, and I do apologize, but I have an urgent meeting in a few minutes, and I have to be there on time." She walked past Matt and out the door to the balcony, obviously not rushing anymore in an attempt to avoid tripping into anyone else. A Ghost followed behind her, and zipped through the crack between the door and the wall before it closed.

Seraph followed his gaze, then turned back to him. "Well, that could have gone better for your first morning back. First you were accused of being a pervert, and next you ran into some poor girl who was running late." "Hey, she ran into me!" he cried indignantly. "That wasn't my fault." Seraph stared at the ground and turned her body left and right, as though she were shaking her head. "In any matter, what's done is done. Come on, I talked to the Vanguards early this morning. They're awaiting your presence."

"What did you say about me?"

"Nothing much," she replied. "Just that you were a potential Guardian. I wanted to save the big secrets for when you were actually there, and we talked to them together." Nodding his head, he took the helmet he had dropped after running into Aria, and placed it on his head. It fit in perfectly with the seal around his neck, and he was fully armored. "Alright then, let's go."

* * *

 

"You didn't have to scream at him, you know." Whip hovered around the room, berating Ash. He'd awoken to her yelling at the man who'd been sleeping in the other bed last night. "Well he didn't have to peek underneath the covers!" she replied with heat in her voice. "Well considering we're both made of metal, it's not as though he did any harm. I mean, if that were the case then I'd be considered nude and I would need to fashion tiny garments for myself." Ash smirked at the thought of the Ghost in a small polyhedron shaped shirt. Still, there was something that made her uncomfortable about it, despite the logic of both the guy's and Whip's arguments. "If at all possible, would you mind fashioning me something similar to what he wore? That black undersuit?" "One black undersuit, coming right up." She saw a blue criss cross of lines surround her form, like a grid of sorts. In a moment, a black garment that was made to fit her feminine form materialized around her. With her artificial nerve-like sensors, she could feel its softness and comfort. "Perfect. Thanks, Whip." The Ghost gave a small wink of his blue light, to acknowledge her gratitude.

Now she could roam around the Tower without feeling naked. She supposed she had been too worn out the night before to fully feel ashamed when she'd arrived in the Tower. She couldn't explain her feelings, they were just there. Did humans think like this? Naturally made to feel uncomfortable without clothing? What a dumb evolutionary trait on their part. She felt bad that she'd yelled at the poor guy for practically nothing, but she also felt to a degree that it was his fault for trying to investigate her personal body as though it was just an object.

Her body clothed and concealed, she opened the door to the room. The guy wasn't anywhere to be found, which was a relief. She didn't want to have to look him in the eye at any other point in the future, knowing the awkward scene they'd shared. "Where are the Vanguards? You said we needed to talk to them last night?" Whip flew over to the balcony door. "They're in the Hall of Guardians, a room in the sub-level of the roof. The stairs in the middle of the courtyard lead to it." Heading towards the balcony door, she gave herself a mission; to find out what was going on in this unfamiliar world, and to learn what her purpose could be. She wanted answers, and these Vanguards were going to give them to her.

* * *

 

Aria descended the last steps of the staircase in a hurry. After she'd run into the man back there, Matt his name was, she had tried not to rush because she didn't want to trip into any more people. But her sense of anxiety had gotten the best of her, and as soon as she'd left the staircase of the balcony, she'd run across the courtyard towards the Hall of Guardians, her Ghost evaluator trailing close behind her. Now she ran through a large corridor with a powerful looking Titan on the right, surrounded by lights and trophies behind him, and a Frame on the left, sitting behind a weapon exchange counter.

Passing them, she reached the end of the hallway which opened up of a large corridor, with holographic screens on the left and right sides, Frames analyzing them for data. And in the center of it all was a shallow pit with a long table in the center. There stood three people positioned around the table, talking with one another and pointing at various maps that were sprawled across the surface of the large piece of furniture. The Vanguards. She didn't feel significant in the slightest while standing in their presence. She felt even less so when she realized they had become silent and were staring at her.

She gulped. Taking a deep breath, she tried to talk to them. "Hello, I'm uh… my name is Aria Sorentine. I'm here for my li- light evaluation? I believe I'd scheduled an ap- appointment here, and the Ghost here said y- you wanted to see it for yourself?" The Exo in the center of the table turned to the other two and whispered, "She's a real confident one, isn't she?" Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard, sarcastic and funny at times from what she'd heard about him, but no less deadly than any other Hunter, if not more so. A black woman turned to face her, and replied to her previous speech, "Are those statements, or questions, young one?" Ikora Rey, the Warlock Vanguard. Having traveled the wilderness for decades with nobody but her Ghost for company, her learned knowledge had earned her the respect of most Guardians, notably Warlocks. Aria began again, this time with renewed confidence.

"My name is Aria Sorentine. I am here for my light evaluation which I scheduled on this day nearly half a year ago. Though I had no idea that I would be in the presence of you three, it is my honor to have my test overseen by the Vanguards." The Awoken Titan at the rear of the table nodded in approval. "Well spoken. It is always our pleasure to guide the young sparks of light on their path so that they may become fully fledged Guardians." Commander Zavala, the Titan Vaguard. He was a legendary warrior, and had helped lead and fight in the Battle of Twilight Gap, the single bloodiest conflict that had ever happened in the war with the Darkness. His reputation was known throughout all of the city, and it commanded respect from all those who saw him.

Rey turned to look at the Ghost hovering in front of Aria. "You may proceed." Giving a small nod, the Ghost turned back to Aria, and began to assess her. As the Ghost analyzed her potential light, she began to physically feel it flowing through her, as though the Ghost had exposed something from within her. It felt like molten lead flowing through her veins, though not in pain; but in power. At some point, the Ghost ceased his assessment, and she felt her awareness of her light dim and fade. She felt normal again. She took a few steps to the right to allow the Ghost to make its report to the Vanguards.

"This candidate has only just turned of age, and already I can see that she has more light within her than most average aged recruits that we process." The Ghost blinked in her direction, letting her know he was happy to put in a good word for her. Rey caught her attention, as she gazed into Aria's face. "Indeed. Aria, you said? Do you study often, perhaps practice channeling the light through yourself at times?" Aria grinned, grateful that her favorite Vanguard had noticed. "Yes, lots and lots. Sometimes I feel most at home while lost in the world of a book." Rey gave a brief smile, and turned slightly to her fellow Vanguards. "She's got the makings of a good Warlock." Cayde-6 and Zavala nodded their agreement. Aria felt her heart pounding, she was so excited. Not only was it possible that she'd be a Guardian, but she might get the chance to use her skills as her preferred class. "Thank you ma'am, I appreciate the praise." Aria gave a slight bow to Rey, trying to do anything to keep the Warlock's preference.

"It's no trouble at all, young one. But I'm afraid that we'll have to attend to something else before coming to a final decision on your Guardianship." Aria's spirits sank. What had she done wrong? "But…" "It's nothing to do with you," said Rey, as though she'd read Aria's mind. "It's just an important matter that's come up concerning- well, there they are now." Aria turned to follow the gaze of the Vanguards as someone entered the chamber, and descended the steps. She gasped in recognition.

"Uh, hi! I'm not really sure who you people are, but from what my Ghost tells me, you're very important. So you have my respect." Matt bowed in recognition of the Vanguards' status, and remained there. He waited for someone to say something like, 'at ease', but nothing came, and he stood straight again, recovering from the awkward moment.

"You!" he heard someone exclaim. He turned to his right to see the young girl he'd nearly been trampled on by, Aria. Seraph had told him that she and the other bluish skinned humans belonged to a subspecies of humans called the Awoken, and had been transformed by a clash between the powers of the light and the dark out near the Jovian planets. She had a look of surprise on her face, perhaps she hadn't been expecting him to be here. To be fair, he hadn't been expecting to see her again either. He gave a small wave and slight smile to show that he recognized her. She kept the same shocked expression, but raised her hand up as well in response to his wave.

"You two know each other?" One of the Vanguards, an Exo wearing a cloak and hood, shifted his gaze from Aria to Matt and back. "Well, not really," explained Matt. "We just met in the hallway near the elevators. She was quite eager to get here I guess, so she just bumped into me by accident." Aria appreciated Matt dumbing down the story to a less embarrassing level, and avoiding the retelling of how she'd completely tripped both of them.

"What is your name?" asked an Awoken man in the back, his gaze focused purely on Matt, as though attempting to penetrate his soul and learn what secrets he held within. He shifted uncomfortably in his current stance. "My name is Matt. I was revived yesterday by Seraph here, and have since been told by her that I needed to see you three, the Vanguards." "Seraph?" inquired the woman in front of him and to his right. "My Ghost," Matt explained. "That's the name I gave her. I didn't want to just call her 'Ghost', that would have gotten old." Seraph gave a small twirl in the air in confirmation of what Matt had said. The woman nodded in understanding. "It's quite rare for a Guardian to name their Ghost, but not completely unheard of. Please, continue."

'Well, I don't really know the specifics of it, it'd be better for Seraph here to explain." Seraph flew forward a few feet, eager to get her report out. "Well firstly, I didn't just revive him. This is the  _first_  time he's been revived." Each of the Vanguards inhaled sharply. It was the hooded Exo who broke the silence. "The first time… this is the first revive from the Golden Age in, what, eight years?" "Nine," Seraph corrected, "but that's also technically incorrect. You see, Matt is from before the Golden Age, from the first few years that the Traveler had made Earth its home."

At this, Aria looked flabbergasted, and completely shocked at what Seraph had to say. But the Vanguards showed signs of frustration and disbelief. "Now, I've heard everything," stated the woman. "I'm not sure what games you're playing here Ghost, but rest assured that-" "It's no lie, I assure you!" Seraph defended, "I was quite shocked myself when I realized the possibility, but he has shown signs. He's given accurate memories of events in his lifetime, he recognized an Arcadia class Jumpship, and frankly, I believe he tells the truth." Matt looked at the little Ghost with newfound gratitude, appreciating her stand against the Vanguards in his defense.

At the young Ghost's speech, the Vanguards looked troubled. "Well-" began Zavala, his hand gripping his chin in thought, "-if what you say is true… then you could potentially be a source of data, of knowledge that we have long since forgotten." Neither of the other two Vanguards acknowledged his statement, they only stared at Matt in stunned silence and awe. Aria thought that Matt looked a bit uncomfortable, but was attempting to wear a mask of confidence. Zavala tried again. "Until we've reached a final consensus-"

The sound of footsteps rapidly approaching the chamber attracted the attention of all the room's occupants. Turning to the entrance, Aria saw yet  _another_ person interrupt the events taking place in the room. This one was a female Exo, one who had donned a black jumpsuit, with alternating patterns of scratched white and silver adorning her body. She took a few steps forward, and placed herself to the left of Matt, a mirrored version of Aria's current position. "Greetings, Vanguards. My name is-" The Exo suddenly stopped, and turned to stare at Matt at her side. "You?! What are you doing here?" Cayde-6 leaned his head against the palm of his arm with his elbow propping himself up against the table. "You know him too? Why is this guy so popular? How did you two get acquainted?"

The Exo stared accusingly at Matt. "I woke up to him looking under the covers of my blankets, staring at my body."

None of the room's occupants had a response to this. Cayde-6 merely had a facial expression that looked like he was saying, "Well."

"I would like to point out," Matt started, before anyone could turn against him, "that I was merely curious about how she worked. I didn't realize it was offensive in any way. Back in my old life, the Exo project had only just started with the discovery of the Traveler, and I was a bit excited to see the successful results of it." Still nobody spoke, but he could at least see the expressions of the Vanguard loosen up a bit.

The Exo tried again. "In any matter, my name is Ash." Cayde-6 looked sharply at her, and asked, "Ash? Ash what?" "Just Ash," she replied. Cayde-6 turned back to the table, muttering, "No number designation, what kind of proper Exo is she…?" Ash continued her story. "My Ghost told me I needed to speak with you. He revived me yesterday from the outskirts of the City, and I am grateful to him. However, I have no memory, no recollection of my past or why I was found so far from the City walls. I don't even know what exactly the Traveler is yet, other than a large floating rock. I'm sure that's not the answer though, and I'd sure appreciate if you could give me some insight." She looked desperate, probably hoping to find a solution amongst the Vanguards. No such luck.

"While we do sympathize with your situation, we cannot simply siphon knowledge from anywhere." Ikora Rey looked apologetic, but remained firm in her speech. "We have no knowledge of who you are, or what your previous life consisted of. However, if you'd like to wait until we finish this discussion with Aria and… Matt?" He nodded in confirmation, and Ikora continued. "Then we can talk about your current living situation, and perhaps set you up with a proper establishment until you're back on your feet-"

"There will be no need for that, Ikora." A new voice had sounded from behind Matt, and he parted to allow a clear line of sight. Unlike with Matt and Ash, no footsteps had been heard. This man had entered like a shadow, silent but present, with a feeling as though he'd always been there. Aria saw the unique white robes and helmet he adorned, and if she'd felt small in contrast with the Vanguards, it was nothing compared to her feeling of insignificance at this moment.

It was the Speaker, the voice of the Traveler. And he was staring at all three of the potential Guardians before him.


	3. Guardians at Last

The Speaker stepped forward the last few steps until he stood directly in front of the three of them, with Matt and Ash slightly to his left, and Aria to his right. The Vanguards looked just as surprised at the visit as they did.

"Speaker? What came over you to gift us with a visit of yours?" asked Rey, respectful as always. "My purpose here today, lies with these two. I have been instructed to enlighten them." He gestured at Matt and Ash, whose feelings of confusion were evident in their facial expressions.

"Those two? How did you even know they were here?"

"I did not, until they reached the Tower last night, and the Traveler itself sensed the potential within them. It has guided me here, so that I may assist them in beginning their journey." He turned to face Aria. "It appears that there was a third individual who had simply not reached the Tower yet, as well. You are apart of this revelation, however you are already on the right track." If voices could smile, the Speaker's gave a kind and understanding one. "Your path has been set in motion correctly, though these two require… an intervention of sorts, to spark their light. All I ask is that you remain here and enjoy the company of the Vanguards for a while longer, until they and I return."

His head gazed over at Matt and Ash. "Come, there is much to learn and little time." The Speaker began to walk away, towards the exit of the Hall. With virtually nowhere else to go, Matt and Ash followed after a second's hesitation.

Cayde-6 spoke, and expressed exactly what Aria was feeling; "What the hell just happened?"

* * *

 

The Speaker wasn't exactly tough to follow, but he sure was mysterious. He hadn't said a word to Matt or Ash since he'd begun to walk, and they'd followed closely in silence as the Speaker rounded corners and passed through corridors, until they crossed a small bridge within a secondary courtyard, and gasped.

The Speaker's room looked not unlike a giant astronomy tower. There was a large, peculiar device that moved and rotated, never impacting against itself due to complicated mathematical algorithms. Behind it was an open balcony, with an incredible view of the Traveler, and the city. To the left was a staircase, one which the Speaker had already ascended as Matt and Ash had gawked in awe. They turned their attention to him, and walked up the staircase as well.

"Please, sit down," said the Speaker, gesturing to two cushioned stools that he had set aside for them, "there is much to discuss." Each of them selected a seat, and awaited what the Speaker had to say.

"I don't know how or why, but the Traveler has selected you two for a greater purpose. Its motives are incapable of being understood at times, and even I still have no idea as of yet as to what that purpose may be." The Speaker turned to gaze at the balcony's view for a moment, as though wishing the Traveler would somehow begin to speak in obvious direction. No such moment came, and he turned his attention back to the two who sat before him.

"What I do know is that I was able to sense each of your light the moment you entered the Tower. You two are powerful, though you do not know it yet. I am here merely to teach you, to answer your questions should you have any, and to hopefully turn you into Guardians." He tilted his head slightly, like he was smiling behind the white mask of his. Ash started to speak first.

"Speaker, I don't know who I am, or anything that's going on right now. I'm not even completely sure what this, 'Traveler' which everyone speaks of, is. I don't remember anything from my past life, as my Ghost had to remove many of my malfunctioning components from my body in order to revive me. How can I find out who I was, what I was created for?" She looked pleadingly at the Speaker. He paused a moment, and then replied as well as he could.

"My dear, perhaps it is not meant for you to understand your origins quite yet. The Traveler has brought you back for a reason, and apparently that reason involves you not retaining any memory of your past life. Maybe the only way to find the path you've lost is to begin a new one, and in doing so stumble across it." This answer obviously did not satisfy Ash, and her fist clenched in frustration. "As for the Traveler, well that's quite easy to explain." He shifted his gaze to Matt. "Or I had thought it was, though perhaps the boy here will shed some forgotten knowledge in the months to come." He turned back to Ash. "The Traveler is an entity that came to us many centuries ago. It sparked a technological revolution, igniting the pioneer within our blood to even greater goals. It helped create your kind as well, the Exos. In a few ways, you could consider it a parent."

"In any matter, a Golden Age of advancement began, with the Traveler at the forefront. It was a time for celebration." Suddenly, the Speaker shuddered slightly. "But as with all happiness, there usually exists one who seeks to destroy it. The Darkness, an ancient enemy of the Traveler, followed it to us. It brought about the Collapse, a period of desperation in which we fought hopelessly against it. Though we did not win against it in any way, our resistance was valiant enough to warrant a temporary retreat from us. It gave us time to rebuild, and prepare." His voice now carried a solemn tone. "But we are not yet ready. Though we manage to keep out the Fallen armies which surround us, they are but one limb of the Darkness, extended like a curios phalange, testing our defenses. It is coming back, and we will not survive it this time unless we stand together with the Traveler once more, and it has remained dormant since its sacrifice for us that ended the collapse."

Ash's face showed understanding now, and she asked, "Alright, so now I know all of that. But what exactly _is,_  'The Darkness'? Is it like, another Traveler, but evil? Or something else?"

The Speaker drew in his breath, shaken by the thoughts of the information he was sharing with the two potential Guardians. "No one quite knows. Many accounts describe the Darkness as an 'it', others as a 'they'. We don't know if it is a single entity commanding several armies, or if it simply the combined efforts of several enemies' attempts to eliminate us. One thing is certain, that it will not leave us in Peace, and our only chance for survival is to destroy it before it destroys us."

The next question came from Matt; "What exactly is a Guardian?"

The Speaker looked at him with appreciation. "Ah, now we've come full circle to the original purpose of this meeting. Guardians are the defenders of the Traveler, its light, and the City. They fight the war that still rages today, though softly, subtly. They are the most noble warriors that exist, putting their lives on the line every day in order to buy more time of safety and peace for humanity." The Speaker gave a small sigh, in silent appreciation of all the Guardians' combined efforts. "And you two are prime candidates."

Ash and Matt twister their heads to face each other, and then focused back on the Speaker. "You want us to become Guardians? To fight the Darkness?" Matt didn't sound unsure of his decision, he only sounded as though he wished to clarify the Speaker's intention. The Speaker nodded. "As I said, the Traveler has selected you for a reason. The quickest way to discover that reason is to begin your journey."

Matt stood up and returned the Speaker's nod. "During my time, the Traveler gifted humanity with just about every technological advance we could hope for." Matt looked behind the Speaker at the view from the balcony, where the Traveler hovered in low orbit over the City. "And now, I've learned that it sacrificed itself for humanity. The least I can do is to become one of its defenders."

Ash looked conflicted with herself for a moment, then gave an outwards sigh. "I suppose I'm not going to get any answers while I'm stuck here, so yeah. If the Traveler has indeed brought me back for a purpose, then I intend to find out what it is."

The Speaker allowed them both to rise from their seats, and clasped a hand on each of their shoulders. "Then in the name of the Traveler's light, I dub you both Guardians." He released them, and though no obvious physical change occurred, Matt felt warm, happy that he now had a sense of direction for his new life. "Return to the Vanguards, they'll explain the living conditions at the Tower. I expect you'll want to find proper accommodations, and perhaps some sustenance as well." Now that he'd said it, Matt realized he was quite hungry. He'd have to wait until after they'd met with the Vanguards before finding some food.

The Speaker turned back to his desk, leaving Ash and Matt to descend the staircase, and make their way back towards the Hall of Guardians.

* * *

 

Aria heard the two pairs of footsteps approaching before the Vanguards did, and she turned to look at their source, attracting the attention of the three veteran Guardians as well. Matt and Ash walked back into the room with different expressions than they'd worn when they'd left. Matt now looked truly confident, and somewhat happy. Ash looked uncertain, but with determination in her features.

"So? What did the Speaker have to say?" Zavala was straight and to the point, like most Titans. Matt opened his mouth to speak, but Ash beat him to it. "We've been granted permission to become Guardians, and to begin our journey in fighting the Darkness." Ikora Rey nodded her head in understanding. "Light be with you."

Aria felt happy for them, but also apprehensive, and even somewhat envious. She'd been trying to practice harnessing the light since she could remember, preparing for this day when she might have the chance to become a Guardian. And these two had apparently only been around since yesterday, yet had already been established as Guardians. It made her more than a little disappointed that-

"In addition to you two, another Guardian has been born today as well." Aria's train of though immediately ceased, and her spirits rushed back into her. She met Ikora's gaze with a face of hopefulness, as Ikora continued. "Aria Sorentine, you have more than passed your light evaluation. Welcome to the world of Guardians." Though the sentence itself was simple enough, Aria could feel a lump in her throat, and her eyes became slightly wet. She'd been waiting for this day a long time, and at long last her patience had been rewarded.

"Now all that's left is for you to each find your calling, your class of Guardian." She stared pointedly at Aria. "I already know you have the great makings of a Warlock, and should you desire it, you have my full approval." Aria nodded vigorously, not wanting to give any kind of chance for Ikora to change her mind. The Warlock Vanguard turned back to face the other two. "So we've found one Guardian's path. Now we just need to find yours. There's no sure way to determine your calling, though we have a method that's almost never been wrong." "Almost never?" asked Matt, raising an eyebrow. The Vanguards looked at each other. "There are those whom the light was not meant to touch," explained Ikora, and Matt could tell the conversation of that topic was over. "In any matter," began Cayde-6, "There are specific traits that each class of Guardians exhibit. Warlocks fight with their mind, first and foremost. Titans prefer to smash their enemies to smithereens, and Hunters exhibit a cool sense of lethality, deadly but calm, at least until you piss them off." Zavala rolled his eyes at Cayde's obvious bias towards his class.

"So I ask you this Guardians…picture a source of power in your mind. Allow the Traveler's light to flow through you, and guide you towards your calling." Now Matt raised his other eyebrow. "And how exactly do we do that? Is this some kind of, 'feel the force' vibe that I'm feeling? I'd be very surprised if any of you have watched Star Wars." He looked around at the faces staring blankly back at him. "Ah right, you don't get my references. Sorry."

Ikora shook her head to ward away the negative thoughts she was likely having, and looked back at Matt. "Simply empty your mind. Allow the Traveler to take control for a brief moment, to show you what you need to see." Matt sighed and turned to Ash next to him. She shrugged, then turned back to the Vanguards and closed her eyes. With another sigh, he repeated her actions.

"Now, picture your source of power. What elemental force drives you to succeed?" Matt didn't see anything but the back of his eyelids.  _Empty your mind,_  he told himself. Just…  _relax._  Surprisingly, he began to feel dormant, less aware. He tried to picture a source of power like Ikora has said, but he still couldn't see anything.

Suddenly, he began to imagine two orbs appearing in the black void of his mind. They became clearer as they grew in size, and they moved around each other in an odd dance of flight. One he could see, was blue. He felt it's power, it's electric surges and pulses. It was the equivalent of a thunderstorm contained in a ball. The other radiated heat, and billowed with an aura of fire. He felt its warmth pour over him, swallowing him in the light.

Ash heard Matt inhale sharply beside her, and she imagined he was experiencing something similar to her. She witnessed two glowing sources of energy, one blue that emanated a statical pulse from its center, and shocked her when she attempted to probe it. The other was a deep violet color, with tiny purple rays that weaved in and out of space, and danced around her body. Her mind couldn't take the prolonged exposure to the incredible energy each put, and she opened her eyes with a gasp.

She looked to her right, where Matt had just opened his eyes as well, and stared back at her, breathing heavily. Sweat had gathered on his forehead, and he seemed positively stunned judging by the expression on his face. She supposed she had the same vacant and surprised look that he did, and she looked away, trying to focus her mind on correcting her facial features.

"What did you see?" asked Ikora. Matt tried to come up with the words to describe the raw power he'd witnessed, but failed. He tried again. "I saw… two orbs of light, one orange, one blue. The blue one seemed like a storm, I guess, as though someone had taken a hurricane or something and jammed it into a tiny container. The other felt like a raging fire, as though it were a miniature sun, glowing in the dark." He felt sheepish for coming up with such odd descriptions, but he saw looks of understanding from the Vanguards, and even approval from Cayde-6.

"And what about you?" Zavala was the first to shift his gaze to Ash, with the other Vanguards mimicking his movement a moment later.

"I saw the same blue orb that Matt here did, but I didn't see any orange one. What I did see what a purple orb instead. This one felt like…" She tried to come up with words to describe it. "I can't think of any other description other than 'magical'. It seemed to be in defiance of the laws of physics, if that makes sense."

"Indeed it does." Ikora gave them a small smile, knowing how the two were currently feeling. "Matt, you have seen the power of Solar and Arc. Ash, you experienced the might of Arc and Void. Each of these three elemental forces, Arc, Solar, and Void, are specific types of light that Guardians draw their power from. Each class has two distinct arts that accompany it. For Hunters, there is the path of the Bladedancer, and the way of the Gunslinger. For Titans, the arts of the Striker and Defender are their outlying abilities. Warlocks experience the might of the Voidwalker, and the rejuvenation of the Sunsinger." She bowed her head and gestured to the other two Vanguards. "Welcome to the light, Hunter, and Titan."

Cayde-6 motioned for Matt to join him at the table, and Zavala gave Ash a curt nod that implied he wished the same. Both walked over to their respective Vanguard.

"I had you pegged for a Hunter the moment you walked in here," said Cayde, and Matt could hear the pride in his new mentor's voice. "I'm sure that you'll make a fine addition to our ranks."

"A Titan's strength is as strong and unyielding as his will," said Zavala. Ash thought about the two subclasses of Titans, much simpler sounding than something like 'void walker', or 'bladedancer'. But she preferred it that way, straight and to the point. Maybe that's why she'd been drawn to the Titan class. "I've observed you, and I can see that your will isn't so easily broken. You truly are a proper Titan." Ash lifted her head at the praise, and stood a little straighter.

Ikora looked at her own new protégé with pride. "I do not need to explain any of this to you, as you've done your research. Perhaps that should be a defining feature of most Warlocks in the future, that they already know what they need to before even attempting recruitment." Ikora had basically just said that Aria was a role-model for future Warlocks, and Aria didn't think her knees would support her for much longer if she kept getting compliments of this magnitude.

"Now, onto the matter of your living arrangements." Ikora nodded at Cayde-6, signaling that this was his subject to speak about.

"Ah, right. Well, here in the City we run off an economy based around Glimmer, a programmable, digital substance that can be electronically moved around. It's basically like virtual money. The Tower is no exception, and you'll find that most of the weapons and armor around here are sold by different vendors, willing to help Guardians out for a price." He snorted. "You'd think that when it came to saving the human race, people would think about more than just money, but evidently not. Anyway, we're going to give you each a few thousand, to set you up. We'll also issue you each permanent living quarters, though you can buy a different space that you prefer with Glimmer later, if you'd like."

Cayde-6 made a motion with his hand towards the open doorway. "Outside in the courtyard, there's a Frame who tracks bounties, assignments given to us by the City and its people. When you complete those bounties, you earn Glimmer. Simple as that. There's also a Cryptarch out there, by the name of Master Rahool. He's nice enough, but he sells engrams, a fourth state of matter. He collects them from the City and God knows where else, but if you pay him, he'll decrypt some and give them to you. They contain everything from armor to weapons. Engrams are just a better, more efficient way to store items. Just tell him what you need, and he'll find it for you."

Cayde-6 looked at the three of them, and made a thoughtful expression. "Though, I'd say the thing you three need the most right now is a ship. Technically, you've already got one apparently," he said, pointing his thumb at Matt, "but Arcadia class Jumpships haven't been used in centuries, and they're likely very unstable in their current conditions. I'd recommend buying a new one along with these two, but at least you can trade yours in for a discount."

He clapped his hands together in an air of finality. "I guess that's about it! Wait, where are your Ghosts?" At their mention, each of the three Ghosts that had been missing materialized in the air. Cayde glanced over at Aria, and pointed at the one hovering above her head. "By the way, you can keep that one. He's been looking to have a Guardian for a bit too long, I'm sure he'll welcome the opportunity." The Ghost gave a small somersault in alignment with what Cayde had said. The hooded Exo shook his head slightly, muttering, "Damn unprofessional, is what it is…"

"Cayde has neglected to tell you of a very important detail." Zavala glared at Cayde who had sharply turned to the Awoken Titan, his eyes wide as he tried to remember what the Titan could be talking about. Zavala shook his head, and said, "A fireteam."

"Oh, yeah!" Cayde turned back to Matt, and said, "I knew that. Was just saving it for last."

Zavala and Ikora rolled their eyes in unison.

"Anyway, a fireteam is a group of Guardians that carry out missions together, using teamwork and strategy to defeat their foes. Though there are always Guardians who prefer to lone-wolf it-" Cayde-6 gave a small  _ahem_ , and whispered,  _Yours truly,_  then continued. "-it can be quite useful to have another Guardian or two backing you up in the field."

Matt looked around at the other Vanguards."Well, I don't really know anyone else here, so I don't know where to start in creating a fireteam."

Cayde looked back at him, and made a quick movement of his hand, in the general direction of Ash and Aria. "Well, I know two others in your same predicament."

The newly initiated Hunter gazed at the other two, both as foreign to the world of Guardians as he was. Well, maybe not Aria, but she hadn't had any combat experience yet. He did.

"I don't have any complaints. Would you two like to be part of a team?" He saw Aria consider it for just a moment, before nodding her agreement. He turned to look at Ash. She had a look of concentration on her face, weighing the options she had. He hoped she wasn't taking the room incident from earlier into account. She stopped, and looked back at him.

"Sure. Why not?" She gave him a brief smile, expressing her genuine eagerness to work together. He gave her a nod and returned her smile, then faced Cayde again.

"Alright then, I think that takes care of our need for a fireteam." Seraph began to twirl her little dance in the air, excited at the events unfolding. Cayde glanced up at her for a moment, then lowered his head back to look at Matt. "So it does. I'm issuing orders to each of your Ghosts right now-" He raise his wrist up, and tapped a few commands into the electronic interface that surrounded it. The Ghosts stiffened for a moment, and twitched slightly. "-telling them where your rooms are now. I'd recommend setting up your quarters right now." He turned to Ash next to Zavala. "Except for you. Since you don't have any gear, you can take the time to get a much needed cleaning. Believe me, as a fellow Exo, I can attest to how great it feels after a good buff. There should be someone who does that in the Hangar, assuming she's not on break." Ash nodded her understanding, and walked around the table to the doorway, before exiting the chamber.

"As for you two, go ahead and set up your rooms, and maybe follow her example and take a shower or something. After lunch, I think you should each head into the hangar and pick out a ship for yourselves. That is, unless you want to walk everywhere." Both Matt and Aria nodded and bowed to the Vanguards, before making their exit.

Zavala was the first to speak. "I do believe these three are quite promising. A bit odd, that's for certain, but promising." "You can say that again," said Cayde. "I liked the kid the second he walked in here." Ikora smirked with the grin of a wolf. "Maybe his story with Ash reminded you just a bit of one of your own similar experiences, except she wasn't an Exo."

"Look, I told you both that it didn't happen like that!" said the Hunter indignantly, to the chortles of both Zavala and Ikora, whom each of which had heard his tale of innocence many times.

* * *

 

"Alright, this is the place." Seraph hovered over next to a door in the back of the Guardian's barracks, which could be accessed through the sliding doors underneath the balcony that led to the elevator station and temporary living quarters. Matt walked over to where she floated, with Aria at his side. "And this, is ours!" Aria's Ghost flew a few feet over to a door on the far side of Seraph's. "Alright, so we're next door to each other. Seraph, out of curiosity, where's Ash's room?" "Checking." He heard her internal motor whir for a moment, then she traveled over to the door opposite of Matt's in relation to the hallway. "This one here. You're all fairly close together." He was glad that he wouldn't have to walk far to reach either of his fireteam members, should the need present itself. "Alright then." With a mock excited look to Aria who giggled, he gripped the handle of his door and swung it open.

He saw that this room was noticeably larger than the temporary quarters of the night before. It wasn't huge, but it definitely gave him a little bit more room, and overall looked nicer. Matt thought it kind of looked like a nice hotel room from his past life. Aria followed him in, and gazed around the interior. "Well I hope all the rooms are this nice." She looked around to see the small kitchen area on the left, with the bathroom on the right. It reminded her of the rentable apartments in the City. Turning around, she made her exit to look at her own room.

She walked out the door and turned to the right, gripping the handle of the door that her Ghost had pointed out. She pulled it open to see a mirrored version of Matt's room, virtually the same space, just reflected. She nodded her head in approval, then left again, her Ghost trailing behind her. She looked over to see Matt exiting his own room, now just wearing his black undersuit, having removed his armor and stored it in his room. He made a motion towards the door. "You ready to go?"

"Go? Go where?"

"To the hangar. I figured we'd meet up with Ash there, and then pick out some ships for ourselves."

Aria liked the idea, and nodded her agreement, pointing to her black pants and blue coat as a sign that she was dressed and ready to leave. Matt looked at them with an approving expression, then turned to walk out the door. Seraph was nowhere to be seen, so she assumed she had dematerialized, so that she'd still remain with Matt in his head, but not fly around everywhere. It took her a second to see that her Ghost was missing as well, meaning that they likely did it on their own accord. It was an odd thought that her Ghost was in her mind, but not the strangest she'd ever heard of. She quickly followed Matt out the door.

* * *

 

"Alright, you're good to go." Ash almost wished it weren't so. The warm wax and vibration of the buffer had been relaxing, and had felt  _so good,_ probably like it did for a human when they scratched at an itch. She looked down at her metallic white-and-silver form, and admired the now shiny and glistening metal that shone from the reflection of light. All of the diluted, rusty red color was gone, and she understood what Cayde-6 had meant; being clean felt _great._ Her joints no longer made slight squeaks when they moved, her chest and legs weren't covered with scratches in her paint coatings, and her mobility felt so much more fluid. She hadn't noticed the slight stiffness in her limbs until she tried to move them after the cleaning and remarked at how easily they rotated and shifted in their sockets.

"Ooh, nice and shiny!" Whip flew around her now clean body, inspecting it for flaws and finding none. Her paint scheme had even been restored.

She moved over to where she'd lain her black jumpsuit. Though she'd had to undress to get cleaned up, she didn't feel nearly as uncomfortable standing in the eyes of the female cleaner. She guessed that it was just a natural reaction to being with someone with the same kind of body, versus someone who would ogle at it. Though that wasn't really fair, since she now knew Matt hadn't been trying anything of the sort when she'd yelled at him. Stepping into the leg holes of her suit, she pulled it up and over her metallic nude form. Thankfully, the material was stretchy, and fit to her body. It at least eliminated the need for zippers or anything.

Once she was ready, she walked back over to the cleaner. "Alright, how much do I owe you?" "Oh, it's no trouble at all," said the cleaner, waving Ash away. "It's the least I can do for a Guardian of the city. Thank you for your service!" The young cleaner turned back to her station in the hangar, moving to attend to her next order of business. Ash wondered about the respect that her status as a Guardian gained her. The only thing she could really do was to make sure that the respect wasn't given in vain, and to uphold the reputation of Guardians that had preceded her.

"Hey, Ash!" She turned quickly to see Matt and Aria heading in her general direction. She walked forward to greet them. "Hey, what are you two doing here?" "Well, we set up our rooms and figured we'd meet you here, so we could pick out our ships." Ash nodded in agreement of Matt's idea. "Alright, lead the way." "Seraph?" Matt's young Ghost materialized in front of him, and flew towards a set of stairs a few yards to Ash's right. "This way." Following the trail of the Ghost, the trio of Guardians ascended the staircase.

At the top was a workshop of sorts. Holographic monitors and screens lined almost every side of the space, and there was a desk in the back with papers scattered all over. Sitting at the desk was a blonde woman with tussled up hair, and stains of grease on her clothing.

"Uh, excuse me miss?" Her head snapped towards them, and she quickly stood up and walked over to welcome them. She extended her hand and gripped Matt's in turn. "Welcome to the Hangar! I'm Amanda Holliday, mechanic for all the Guardians' ships that pass through here. I also sell them, should you need one." He noticed that she had a thick Texan-like accent, though he doubted that anyone here even remembered what Texas was. She retracted her hand, and when he examined his own, he saw bits of dirt and oil on it, left behind from the female mechanic.

"Yes, that second option sounds good right about now." He gestured towards the two women behind him. "This is Ash, and Aria. We're all new Guardians, and we're looking for a means of transportation."

Amanda nodded in understanding. Man, there seemed to be a lot of that these days. "I gotcha. Will that be a group or single ship?"

"What?" Matt didn't know what she meant by group.

"Well, a group ship can accommodate up to a few people. Singles can only fit one, usually the pilot, unless it's the Ghost that's driving. Group ships are bigger obviously, and are somewhat more expensive, but they're just as fast as the singles, and you only have to pay for one. If you know that you're going to need it for multiple people a lot, I'd highly recommend it."

Matt turned to his two companions behind him. "What do you guys think? We pool our money, and all share one for transport? It'd save us a bit of money if we're all splitting the cost." He could see them consider the notion, and then nod their approval. He turned back to the mechanic, and said, "Alright then, one group ship please." Amanda nodded, and motioned for them to follow her over to one of her monitors. She slid her finger across the screen, and different images of the various models of ships popped onto the screen. "So if you're looking for a nice group ship, I'd recommend this baby here. The LRV2, Javelin class. It's about as fine as they come, and handles like a bird." The ship certainly sounded promising enough.

"How much?" "Around 3,000 glimmer." "Seraph, how much Glimmer did the Vanguards give us?" She hovered in front of him, checking her data. "Around 5,000 each." That left 4,000 glimmer for each of them, more than enough for them to start off with. He turned to look at Aria and Ash to see what they thought.

"That's not a bad deal," said Ash, and she crossed her arms across her chest, awaiting his final decision. "I agree, I think we should take it." Aria looked more than approving of the choice. Matt like the aesthetics of it too. It looked almost like an SR71 Blackbird, the fastest plane in the world, or at least it had been until the Traveler had arrived, and jumpstarted their level of technology to create ships like the Arcadia classes, ships that could literally warp in and out of space to reach destinations faster.

"Sure, we'll take it." "Excellent! Just transfer over the glimmer to my account, and you're good to go." Matt saw a prompt pop up on his wrist interface that Seraph had created for him. He tapped a 'confirm' icon, and watched as a blue light pulsed when he did. "Transaction complete! I'll have your ship outfitted and ready in a few hours. You can store your ship in the hangars here when it's not in use." Matt waved a thank you in her direction, and descended back down the staircase, Ash and Aria following close behind.

"Alright, we've got our ship. Now all we need is some food. Anyone hungry?" On cue, his stomach growled. Both Ash and Aria laughed at the noise. "Sure, I could eat. I missed breakfast this morning anyway, long story." Aria glanced over at Ash who had a look of confusion on her face. "One second, do I eat? Whip, do I eat food?" Both Matt and Aria had to hold their composure to avoid laughing at the absurd conversation Ash had started with her Ghost. "Well, you do need energy, but you can get energy from either sources of electricity, or by consuming organic foods like what Matt and Aria eat. The Exos were designed to process all kinds of matter and convert it to energy, so that they could keep functioning." Her question answered, Ash turned back to Matt and said, "Yeah, I'm down. Where to?"

Matt looked up at Seraph, and asked, "Hey, do you know any good places to eat around here?" Suddenly, he became wide-eyed and said aloud, "Oh great, I've turned my super advanced AI companion into a glorified smartphone." He shook his head to the bewilderment of the other two Guardians who stood next to him, and turned back to Seraph. She gave small pulses of blue light as she processed information. "There are a few restaurants in the City, mostly in the higher end areas. What are you looking for?"

"Just look for something with burgers. I'm starving." With another blue pulse, Seraph exclaimed, "I found one. Follow me." Seraph began to float off, presumably making her way towards the elevators of the Tower. Without missing a beat, Matt, Ash, and Aria followed her.

* * *

 

"Mmm, these burgers are delicious!" Matt enjoyed his meal in delight and contentment. He hadn't expected burgers to still be around, due to the end of the world and everything. Yet here it was, a beef burger with cheese and fruit. Or, whatever passed for beef these days. He hadn't seen any cows, and he wasn't too keen on finding out what the City was using as a substitute.

The trio of Guardians sat at a booth in a popular bar, ordering both food and drink for themselves. Ash had been quite surprised when she found that in addition to her ability to eat organic food, she could even taste it, and they'd all laughed in enjoyment and celebration at her new discovery. Matt was finishing up the last of his burger and drinking some kind of beer, while Aria and Ash were only halfway through their meal. He guessed that being dead for hundreds of years turned you into quite the ravenous eater. He popped the last bit of bread and meat in his mouth, and began to sip his drink, waiting for the other two to finish.

"I agree," said Aria in consensus. "There isn't usually anything this tasty down in the urban districts, where I grew up. This is too fancy a place for my family to visit." Matt liked Aria's personality. She was humble, and didn't seem to try and place herself above others in status. Ash was great too, with her witty banter and to-the-point attitude. He didn't know how old she was, but she acted similarly to that of a 20 year old, about Matt's age. If there was one thing Ash had that Aria didn't, it was the age factor. Aria, being eighteen apparently, was nearly two or three years younger than Matt or Ash. Though there weren't any strict age restrictions with alcohol where eighteen and overs were concerned, Aria had wrinkled her nose at the suggestion of a beer. Ash had no such complaint, and had nearly downed half of her own in the first sip.

"Hey, Matt." He turned to look at Ash, who seemed worried about something. "I didn't mean to make you sound like some kind of creep, back in the Vanguards' hall. I know now that you weren't trying to be offensive, and maybe I overreacted. I just… I'm sorry." Matt was already waving her apology away before she'd finished speaking. "Ah, don't worry about it, no harm done. I probably shouldn't have looked like a snoop peeking in some stranger's bed. No hard feelings?" Ash nodded her appreciation, and went back to eating her sandwich.

"So, you're from before the Golden Age?" Aria looked at Matt with interest. "Yup," he replied, downing another swig of his drink. "And you were alive when the Traveler first arrived on Earth?" Again, he confirmed her question with a quick nod. "When we first discovered it on Mars, I remember everyone thinking it was some kind of structure that had been built. But we quickly found that it was sentient, or at least had some kind of mind. Technology boomed big time, our top of the line electronics became a thing of the past overnight. There was more unity between the different nations than I'd ever seen, probably because no one knew how to react to this thing." He shrugged. "I guess I'm already doing my job, providing insight into the past."

Aria had observed Matt as he'd talked, and she didn't detect any trace of him trying to brag about his unique status, or see him swaggering with his newfound value. In fact, he seemed somewhat uncomfortable with his unusual job, and appeared to dislike the attention it had gained him from the Vanguards. She liked that he wasn't someone who needed to be in the spotlight.

"So, what now?" asked Ash, the last of her meal disappearing into her mouth. "I was just about to ask you two that," replied Aria. "What do you think, Matt?"

He contemplated their options. "Well, we've all had somewhat of a long day. Navigating through the city took about an hour, and it'll take an hour to get back. That estimate leaves us arriving back at the Tower at around five. Not much we can do for the rest of the day, so I'd say head back and get some rest before setting out tomorrow. Our ship will be ready, and we'll take on some Tower bounties."

Both Ash and Aria seemed to like his idea."Alright then, you two can show me my room." Ash stood up from the booth of the table, and left the seat, allowing Aria to exit as well. Matt stood up along with them, and they walked towards the exit together.

* * *

 

Ash flung herself down on her bed. After Matt and Aria had pointed her room out to her, she'd thanked them and entered. Just like her Ghost had said, she didn't completely need sleep, but it did help her keep her awareness up. Even machines weren't built to run non-stop. She got comfortable, and glanced over at Whip who was setting himself up on the nightstand.

"Today was quite the eventful day, don't you think?" She awaited the Ghost's response, but upon hearing none, she glanced over to see that he'd already deactivated for the say. She looked back up at the ceiling and mulled over the day in her head. Though she hadn't gotten any answers on where she'd come from, or what her past life had been, she'd started a new one just like the Speaker had suggested. She was now a Titan, a Guardian of the Traveler. She had a fireteam, one that was ready to help her on her journey. She thought about Matt and Aria, her fellow fireteam members, and realized that they were perhaps the only real people she knew right now. She also came to the revelation that she'd begun to regard them as friends, not just people she knew.

It felt good to have friends to support her, especially with all the confusing turns her life had taken in the last few days. Staring into the dark space of the room, Ash thought about them fondly as her glowing blue eyes illuminated the shadowy corners of the room, and slowly, closing her eyes, she drifted off into peaceful slumber.


	4. First Blood

Ash jolted awake, having been interrupted from her sleep by the downward arc of a thrown pillow.

"C'mon, it's already eleven. You've slept in long enough, let's get a move on!" Aria stood in the Exo's room, already dressed in her gear. She wore a white tunic, short and tactical looking, that came down to just above her knees. It had slight lavender accents, and looked quite professional, as though Aria were preparing more for a meeting, or a business endeavor rather than battle. Ash glared at her with as mean a look that she could fake. Obviously, she wasn't really mad at the girl, but she didn't want to be woken like that in the future, either. "Better not do that again, or that pillow's gonna come flying right back at you."

Aria wasn't buying it. "Oh come off it, you and I both know you're bluffing. Hurry up and let's go!" Aria made an impatient gesture towards the door. From across the hallway, Ash spied Matt stumbling out of his adjacent room, half dressed in his armor. She assumed he'd been greeted with the same brutish morning as her, and she watched him yawn tiredly as he placed his helmet over the seal that lined his neck. Fully armored, he walked to the right and out of her line of sight. She sighed in resignation, and looked back to Aria.

"Where'd you get those robes? I could use some armor as well, seeing as I don't really have anything other than this." Using her two forefingers, she pinched the black suit she was wearing, signaling to Aria her lack in wardrobe. "There's a few vendors around the tower, they sell armor and weapons to the Guardians. I'd go the gunsmith for weapons, he's got quite the selection. Matt's heading there now. Though, if you're looking for armor, you should probably see the the Vanguard armory. It's near where you had your cleaning, in the hangar." Ash nodded to show she comprehended Aria's instructions, and the young awoken girl left the room. Ash pushed herself up into a sitting position on the bed, and placed her feet on the ground. She looked over at Whip who had activated as soon as he'd heard the pillow's impact on Ash's face.

"You need to be more alert, Whip. I can't keep being woken up through unwelcome means." The Ghost rotated his eye 360 degrees, in a rolling motion. "Oh, poor you. First tragedy befell you when an innocent guy stumbled across you naked, and now I failed to protect you from a pillow assassin. What shame I feel." Though the Ghost's attitude was heavily sarcastic to say the least, Ash almost appreciated it. It gave the floating AI a personality, and a sense of individualism. She felt like she was talking to another person when she conversed with him, unlike the few times she'd talked to a frame in her time at the Tower, as they were simply programmed to respond to your behavior.

"She is right, you know. You should get a move on, or all the good bounties will be taken." With a nod, Ash stood up and walked to the exit.

* * *

 

An hour and 200 Glimmer later, Ash wore a full set of Titan armor. She'd bought it from the Vanguard Quartermaster during the shopping spree she and Matt had shared. Her new armor had a red and white color scheme, and was called Agema. Well, some model of Agema, but she hadn't kept track of the serial number. She'd just thought it looked sturdy, and had picked it up. It was comfortable to say the least, not her first priority of course, but it was definitely a damn good bonus.

Matt examined his new armor as well. He'd replaced his Ghost generated plates with a set called 'Stratus White'. It was blue and white, and surprisingly fit in well together as a color palette. "I like the feel of this," he said. "It's nice and comfortable. It even regulates my temperature, keeping me cool." With a glance to the left side of her HUD, Ash indeed noticed that there was a digital thermometer that was set at constant temp of around seventy five degrees.

In addition to their defensive purchases, they'd bought a few weapons to help keep them on the offense as well. Matt now carried a silver hand cannon in a holster, part of a belt that he clipped around his waist. There were multiple pockets to the thing, leaving Ash with the assumption that some were likely where Matt would end up keeping grenades and ammo. She herself handled a scout rifle, JIGOKU class. She'd tested it out with the gunsmith before buying it. She appreciated the ranged weapon's stability, and she felt a cool sense of lethality every time she handled it. She also had bought a shotgun, preferring close quarters combat to the stealthy approach that Matt had tried to take. He was now waiting on an order for a sniper rifle. Aria had already bought herself a few weapons before she'd even woken the other two up. She carried a pulse rifle on her back, attached to her with an adjustable buckle strap.

"So, are we ready?" Ash looked at her two friends, and wondered if they were finally prepared to venture into the wilderness, officially carrying out their first mission together as a fireteam. Aria just looked excited to be where she was, with her gear ready to go, and her helmet in hand at her side. Aria couldn't read Matt's expression through his helmet visor, but she had a feeling that he was looking at the three of them with pride.

"Yeah, we're ready. Let's go."

They walked towards the Frame that the Vanguards had talked about, standing in front of a large electronic monitor. His metal head turned towards the sound of them approaching. "Greetings, I am Xander 99-40, bounty tracker of the tower. Is there anything I can help you with Guardians?" Matt looked at the curious droid's face- if you could call metal beams and a sensory plate a face. "Yes, we're just checking in on the daily bounties. Is there anything we can do?"

'Why, certainly!" The Frame reached its hand into a satchel at its side, and pulled out a small notebook with several leaflets in it. "There's a need for someone to harvest the spinmetal around the forgotten shore… there's an area that needs to be scouted near the edge of the city walls… and there's a roaming pack of Fallen that were spotted around two hours ago. Which ones would you like?" Matt thought for a moment, and then said, "Give us the two about the city wall and the Fallen enemies. We'll take care of both." 'Splendid! Here you are." Once again, Matt saw a prompt appear on his wrist interface. Upon clicking 'confirm', he now saw a small progress meter, tracking his accomplishments. He heard Aria's and Ash's interfaces beep as well, and he presumed they were checking their own as he had done.

"Traveler's light go with you!" Xander now turned to another Guardian and began to assist them in their bounty search.

"Well, we've got our mission. Seraph, can you bring the ship around?" The Ghost materialized, nodded, and then vanished again. It took a few moments, but the three Guardians began to hear the increasing sound of a ship's engines, and they looked up and over the edge of the Tower to see their black and silver ship fly over the courtyard and hover there for a moment. Blue lights appeared and surrounded their bodies, as Seraph transmatted them into the cockpit of the ship. There were two chairs in front of the flight console, seats for the pilot and co-pilot. Another seat was positioned directly behind the first two, about four feet back. This one seemed more of a passenger seat than anything.

Shuffling about, Ash found herself in the pilot's chair, with Matt in the co-pilot's, and Aria in the passenger seat. Then Ash brought up an unforeseen problem.

"Uh, guys? Do any of us know how to fly?" Upon seeing their blank stares, Whip materialized, and explained, "Don't worry about that, we Ghosts can handle this one." Aria's own AI companion appeared as well, and nodded in the air. "Oh yes, we Ghosts are more than capable of flying aerial craft."

Giving the other Ghost an odd look, Whip turned back to the Guardians. "When we get back to the tower later, we can help teach you. It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it." Again, Aria's Ghost interrupted, saying, "As easy as riding a bike! Or, so the human saying goes."

Whip turned back to the Ghost. "My, you're just a parroting little echo, aren't you?" "I beg your pardon?" cried the other Ghost indignantly. The three Guardians snickered, to his embarrassment. "I am not some mimicking idiot!" "Well, you're sure giving it a good try. Echo, the redundant Ghost." At this, Aria couldn't help but laughing through her masked seriousness. Her Ghost gave her a withering stare, or as much of one as they could do without facial features. "Go ahead, laugh my young Guardian! See if I try to help you three later…" "Oh come on, Echo…" Aria wiped away her tears of laughter as she now used the nickname given to him. "We're only teasing. Don't be so stuck up."

Grumbling, the Ghost dematerialized. Whip shook himself, and glanced back at the trio in the seats before him. "Anyway, like I said we can pilot this thing. Just make sure you get your safety harnesses fastened, we're gonna be going a little fast." The three of them scrambled to correctly hook up their buckles and belts. No sooner had they finished when the ship began to accelerate.

Down in the courtyard of the Tower, other Guardians watched the jet-like ship pick up speed and fly off into the sky, until it was no more than a black speck in the distance.

* * *

 

Aria looked at the monitors that adorned the interior of the bridge. Some were connected to external cameras, and she could see the rocky and barren, though beautiful in its own way, landscape rush by as the Javelin flew past it all in a blur. Gazing out at the front viewport, she saw a section of the large walls of the City grow larger to her surprise.

"Hey, why are we heading towards the wall?" Ash and Matt, both of whom had been engaged with a conversation with each other, turned back towards the window and saw that she was right. "Hey yeah, what gives? I thought we were taking care of those Fallen roamers first." Seraph materialized in front of his face. "Well, we are. In an odd chance of coincidence and probably convenience, from what I've been able to gather from the Fallen comm chatter, the pack that was seen scavenging around has been headed here, towards the area we need to scout."

Matt looked at her, his helmet hiding his eyebrows that he'd just pulled together. "I wonder why that is. What is it about the area that warrants a need to investigate it?" Seraph's blue light pulsed again as she checked her information. "Apparently odd noises, weird occurrences nearby. My personal guess; another group of Fallen is living inside that section of the wall, and this group is journeying over to visit. Whether it's to exchange materials or what, I can't say for certain." Matt nodded. "Well then, in that case we may be able to kill two birds with one stone."

Suddenly, Whip's voice emitted from the internal speakers of the Javelin; "Alright you three, I'm going to transmat you down to the ground when we're low enough. Seraph and I can keep the Javelin nearby, while Aria's Echo there, accompanies you down. You should have at least one Ghost with you." "Wait, why aren't you or Seraph coming with? It's not like you need two Ghosts to fly the ship, you're living algorithms," asked Ash suspiciously. Whip hesitated a moment and then began, "Well, there's a few variables that we haven't accounted for, and I'm of the opinion that perhaps it'd be a safer bet to-"

"Oh my God, you think we might fail!" Ash's accusing tone, followed by Whip's silence confirmed her guess, and in an effort to divert attention, he began the countdown. "Transmatting in 3…2…1…"

The blue grids reappeared, and the next thing Matt saw was the Russian landscape, slightly blanketed with snow. The next thing he heard was Ash muttering, "Coward…" "C'mon," he urged, pointing at some tracks in the snow. "I can't say I know exactly what Fallen footprints look like, but those ones sure as hell aren't human or any kind of animal that I know." He began to trek across the ground, following the trail that the roaming Fallen had left behind. Trusting their human companion, both Ash and Aria followed, each behind and to either side of Matt, forming a triangle.

It took them nearly half an hour to reach the borders of the wall. From a small hilltop closely, they spied a group of Fallen next to a small section of the wall, simply standing there. It was Ash's first time seeing the aliens in person, and they pretty much matched the description that Aria and Matt had given her; four arms each, with armor covering most of their body, save for the ones she and Matt and learned were called 'Dregs', the ones with only two arms and docking caps covering their lower two stumps. The fully limbed class members were referred to as Vandals. Ash could see another one that looked similar to a Vandal, though noticeably larger, and armed with some kind of cannon in its arms. She wasn't entirely impressed with them, going by the simple philosophy that an enemy was an enemy, and had to be killed either way, so why worry about its appearance? She was more concerned about their strength and skill, and wondered how she would handle against them in combat. She'd practiced with her scout rifle, but these were moving, defiant targets. Much tougher to shoot.

"So? What's our plan of attack?" Aria was looking at Matt, her Warlock's helmet tilted up to allow her a better angle. Ash was slightly curious as to why Aria immediately assumed Matt was leading for a moment, before reasoning that since Matt had been the only one to actually fight these things so far, it was logical for him to guide them with their attack. She held her pride, and awaited his order.

"Well, from what I've seen, their heads are pretty weak. I know that sounds like a stereotypical thing to say, but it's true. They look like they've got a lot less armor around their head and eyes than they do with the layers upon layers on their torso and limbs. In addition to that, I've seen this white, vapor-like gas leak out when their heads are gone. I'd say that their skulls aren't very thick, and probably don't need to many bullets before they pop." With a nod from each of his two associates, he continued. "I'd say that we get in close, around 30 yards from them, and just open up. They'll be hitting the ground before they even know we're there." Though Ash would have preferred to go straight up to them and smack them in their ugly faces, she saw the safety in his stealth approach.

The Guardians took a bit more time to position themselves behind a small incline that was roughly about the distance away from the pirates that Matt had suggested. They unslung their weapons, and laid down on the ground. Matt was laying in the center, with Ash up next to him on his left, and Aria on his right. He positioned his hand cannon on the ground in front of him, gripped in his right hand, and held up his left with three fingers up. Slowly, he removed his fingers one by one, until there was nothing but a closed fist, and all three Guardians opened hell upon the unsuspecting Fallen.

He immediately noticed several trails of the white substance burst from the heads of those who had fallen victim to the scout rifle and hand cannon. The pulse rifle rounds had a greater spread, and impacted against their chests and limbs, bruising and stunning the enemies for a few moments, before the other two precision weapons fired and finished them off.

Within ten seconds, the group of nearly fifteen vandals and dregs had been reduced to four, not including the Captain who had not gone down under the hail of bullets, and roared at them from their hidden position on the raised incline.

"Reloading," said Aria, making sure to alert her teammates that she was replacing the magazine in her rifle. Matt and Ash began to do the same, but blue bolts of arc energy peppered the ground in front of them, kicking up dust and reducing their visibility as the remaining vandals fired at them with their wire rifles. "No time, they've spotted us," called out Ash. She stood up and began to charge the five remaining enemies, much to the dismay of Matt who had just begun to protest her stepping out of cover. Shaking his head, he turned to Aria beside him. "Give us some covering fire, alright? I'm gonna help her out here, make sure she doesn't get killed." Without waiting for her response, the Hunter ran after the trigger happy Titan that looked like she was about to take them all on singlehandedly.

The young Warlock lined up her shot, ready to defend her friends if necessary.

Ash reached the vandals and dregs, and cocked her fist back, bracing herself for the punch she was about to throw. One of the dregs rushed to meet her with an shock dagger, but it stumbled under the impact of rounds that Aria had fired from her support position. It looked off towards the source of the bullets just long enough for Ash to take advantage of the distraction and ram her fist directly into the side of its head, instantly caving in its skull and killing it. Its corpse flew backward a few feet from the sheer force, and she took the time that she had with no enemies to reload her scout rifle.

A vandal ran towards her, but was forced to halt as Ash's ammunition tore through his armor and exited through his back. He fell like a sack of bricks. Two down.

The last two, a pair of vandals, readied themselves with their shock blades in hand, but their growls of challenge had barely began before a few shots from Matt's hand cannon came from the left and caused their heads to explode in a burst of white gas. Their two unarmed limbs shot up at their neck, a nerve reaction, to clutch at the empty space where their brains had used to reside. Ash grinned inside her helmet, until she felt a small shake in the ground, and realized she'd forgotten about the Captain.

Turning around, she was just fast enough to see the Fallen's burly arm backhand her, and the impact sent her flying backwards a few feet. Readjusting her aim, she began to fire at the large enemy in front of her, keeping it at bay until Matt jumped on its back, having used its focused attention on Ash to slip around it undetected. Pulling a knife from a sheath in his belt, Matt used his hand gripping the chin of the beast to arch its head back, exposing its throat. With as much force as he could gather, he thrusted the knife into its neck with his other arm. The Captain began to make choking noised, as it bled internally and began to drown in its own blood. It fell to its knees as soon as Matt dismounted, and yanked the knife out its throat. This only gave the blood more room to flow, and in doing so, caused the Fallen Captain to bleed out even more quickly. Matt retrieved his knife from the hand of the still heaving form of the doomed Captain, now laying on the ground, and placed it back in its sheath. Then he glanced over at Ash.

"Look, the last thing I want to do is berate you for what you did, because regardless of what it was, it was badass and brave. But you've got to remember that you're not a one man army, and when you're up in close like that without us to back you up, you might be on your own." Ash wanted to argue that she'd won, but then remembered that she'd only wounded the Captain enough for Matt to drive his blade into it, meaning she'd had help. In fact, she'd needed help with almost all of her would-be victims, from Aria's supporting fire, to Matt's life-saving precision shots. She kept her mouth shut, and only nodded at the Hunter, scared to admit how right he may have been.

Matt nodded back in acknowledgement of her acceptance, and turned to look at Aria, now walking over from their original position.

"That was some nice covering fire from what I could see. Good job." The Awoken girl nodded in acceptance of his praise, and then gazed over at the wall. "So this is what these Fallen were looking at?" In the side of the wall was a large crack, opening into a room of darkness. She could smell something odd in there, almost rotting. The newly dubbed 'Echo' materialized in front of her.

"That would be correct, Guardian. This is also the entrance to the section of the wall we need to investigate as well." Echo looked at the wall, then at Matt. "Make sure to mark the bounty as complete on your interface, now that we've taken out the Fallen." Bringing his wrist up to his face, Matt tapped a few commands into the device, then lowered it again.

"We're supposed to go in there? We don't know what could be in there at all, it's pitch black." The Ghost activated a small light that shone from his eye, providing a potential light source. "It smells. Bad." Aria's input was small, though accurate. Matt noticed that too, some kind of stench that reminded him of roadkill. But the City needed these coordinates scouted, so he was going to do it. With a glance at Ash and an accompanying shrug, he began to walk into the opening. After a frustrated action of throwing her hands into the air to express her disapproval, Ash too entered the crack. Aria followed closely behind with Echo, who now became a beacon of light in the dark.

The room they were in was completely devoid of any light source. The only visibility came from the light shining out of Echo's eye, illuminating the dark corners and walls. The interior of the wall was filled with pillars and railed off platforms connected with catwalks and metal staircases. Their boots produced soft clangs against the metal floor out of the silence. The place was definitely eerie, that was for sure.

"I've never seen any kind of Fallen camp be styled this way," said Echo, now talking to both himself and the Guardians, trying to work through the unusual circumstances with logical reasoning. "They almost always have at least a little light, so that others can see their banners and the trophies of their victims. This place is just blackness, like a solid shadow." Suddenly, Matt stopped.

"Guys, look at this." Matt rubbed his gloved finger on one of the pillars in the darkness. When he pulled it away, the rest of them could see a black substance, seemingly both liquid goo and evaporating gas come away with it, stuck adhesively to his finger. Shaking his hand, he threw it off vigorously. "Whoa, that feels…wrong. Just…wrong." When he touched it, he'd felt sick, like he was coming down with some kind of illness. The nauseating feeling subsided as soon as all traces of the material had left his hand. "I don't like this," said Aria, her voice becoming traitor and giving away how unsettled she felt.

Out of nowhere, all three Guardians detected the same thing; movement. Spinning around to line up their line of sight with the radar on their HUD's, they saw a quick flash of something grayish white in the darkness, illuminated for a brief second under the Ghost's light. "Guys…" began Matt, but before he could say anything else, his radar exploded with activity.

It's motion detector showed that enemies were all around, surrounding them, even next to them. But he couldn't see anyone. Echo turned frantically from side to side, obviously receiving the same information as the Guardians' trackers. In a flash, an idea crept into Matt's brain and took residence, refusing to leave. Slowly, he glanced over the side of the catwalk they were on.

Gripping onto the side of the catwalk were bony, skeletal hands that looked as though they were malnourished, and completely devoid of life. He just yelled, attracting attention towards the shocking sight. At his signal of becoming aware, the hands that belonged to a larger body began to pull the rest of the creature that they were connected to up and over the railing's side. It landed on the natal floor with a thump, and Matt nearly lost it.

The creature in front of him was humanoid, but looked sick, and twisted. It had no eyes, just a body and skin that looked as though it could be torn apart with the fragility of paper. It screamed at him with a single mouth lined with broken and decaying teeth. It sounded like a person being tortured in the worst possible ways.

"Thrall!" cried Echo, and he grew his radius of light larger, illuminating even more of the terrifying creatures that had been hidden in the darkness. Frankly Matt didn't care  _what_  they were called, as long as the one standing in front of him soon became a dead one.

He brought his foot up and quickly extended it with a large amount of force directly into its chest, propelling the beast over the side of the catwalk and into the dark depths below. The amount of force he'd given had nearly punched through its abdomen, and he again thought of the comparison to paper for skin.

Ash and Aria wasted no time with melee, and instead opted to unload magazines of bullets upon the small army that surrounded them. Matt brought his hand cannon up, and began to follow their examples, filling the thralls that had begun to throw themselves at the Guardians like suicide squads with lead, and ending their attempts before they'd even begun. Ash had switched to her shotgun, and was proceeding to blow ten-inch holes in the torsos of the creatures, rocketing them backwards from the explosive force of the metal pellets.

"Look around for a floating one of these things, that's a wizard! All of the thralls' wills are connected to its mind! You kill the Wizard, you kill the thralls!" Matt began to look around as he continued to fire into the waves of skeletal enemies, until he spied it about fifteen feet in front of Ash, waving its arms in the air in what looked very much like a puppeteer controlling a series of marionettes. "Ash, twelve 'o' clock! Take it out!" he yelled. Ash glanced slightly upward, saw the ghostly threat, and raised her rifle, firing shot after shot into its forehead. It wasn't too long until the rounds took their toll and punched a hole through the Wizard's face. It disintegrated in midair with a high pitched scream, orange contrails escaping the glowing cracks that formed in its body before it turned to nothing but dust and ash.

Almost as if on cue, the bodies of the thralls began to crumple, falling over one another until they ceased to move, and they too evaporated into the air. Without another word, the three Guardians and Ghost sprinted towards the exit, back the way they'd come.

Though it only took a few seconds, it felt like hours to Matt, and he wanted nothing more but to escape this hell hole back into the light of the sun. With another few stride, he did just that, and he tripped in his haste, sprawling across the ground, before scrambling back up to look and make sure Ash and Aria had come through safely. Their chests heaved as well, all three of them stunned and nonplussed from what had just happened.

"What the hell were those things?!" Matt jabbed a finger at the crack, indicating he was referring to the hellish creatures they'd just killed.

"That, was the Hive." Echo flew forward from his normal position hovering around Aria's shoulder, and looked at Matt. "They are another of the Darkness's several armies. We lost the moon to them, as they burrowed beneath it and now inhabit it. We'd hoped that would be enough for them, but apparently not. They haven't been on Earth in centuries, this has to be the first recorded encounter since the Collapse."

"So, what'd you call the individual creatures? Thrall?" Matt tried to remember the terminology that the Ghost had used. "Yes, the creatures that were being used as cannon fodder are called 'Thralls'. That one that flew above them, controlling them? That's a 'Wizard'."

"So we killed the Wizard, but why'd the thrall die?"

"Because their life force is tied into the Wizard's consciousness. She conjured them up, therefore they obey the will of her mind." "Conjured them up?" The Ghost looked uncomfortable at Matt's question, before continuing on to explain, "Well, from what we've gathered data wise, all indications point to the thrall being humans or other creatures that have been revived by the Darkness instead of the light."

At this, all there Guardians were silent. Matt thought about the possibility of them having become a thrall instead of a Guardian if he'd been revived by a Wizard instead of Seraph. He shuddered. To take his mind off of the frightening images that kept popping up in his mind, he brought up his interface and marked the bounty as 'complete'.

"We finished what we came here for, now it's time to head back. We need to tell the Vanguards about this if what you said about the Hive is true, Echo." He spoke into his interface, alerting Seraph and Whip to their position. "Hey, we finished the job. We need pickup pronto. Something's come up."

* * *

 

"The Hive? Are you sure, Guardians?" Ikora Rey's face failed to mask the worry and concern she was feeling. "Positive. We had no idea what they were, but Aria's Ghost correctly identified them as 'Thralls' and a 'Wizard'. We wouldn't have known to kill the Wizard otherwise." All three of the Vanguard's listened to Matt's report, and turned to face each other. Cayde-6 turned to Matt and explained how they felt about the situation.

"The Hive are probably one of, if not the most prominent of the Darkness's armies. They don't have any other loyalty or obligation other than to fulfill the wishes of the Darkness by consuming all light in the universe. To think that they might be beginning to move on from the moon and attack here…" Cayde's motors gave an involuntary shudder. "It's not the most pleasant of possibilities we have to consider."

Aria looked around the table of veteran Vanguards and began to speak. "Well, from what we've seen it's only been this one section of the wall that's been compromised. But we don't know for sure. Is there any way we can find out what the Hive are up to?" Ikora's face concentrated in thought, and then turned pale at the realization of a possible course of action. "Yes, there's something we could do, but it's incredibly dangerous, not to mention far away from support." Ash stepped forward before the Warlock could protest. "We're Guardians now, ma'am. We need to take as many risks as are necessary to defend the City. What needs to be done?"

Ikora took a deep breath, and said, "Inside the Hive's fortress is a library. We learned this from another Guardian who was stationed on the moon for a few months, instructed to study them and observe their military force. Within this library, the Hive keep all of their records. Much of it is likely gibberish and religious babble worshipping the Darkness, but some of it may be useful to see why they could be moving into an offensive position on Earth."

"And where is this library?" asked Matt, dreading the answer that he already knew she was going to say.

"Inside the Hellmouth, the Hive's pit of their lair. You're going to have to go into the moon."

 


	5. Into the Dark

 

Aria sat in silence. Fastened in place in each of their respective places on the Javelin, her fireteam said not a word as they flew through warp-space. Blue lights and dancing waves passed by the exterior of the ship in a beautiful display, but she wasn't paying attention, nor would she have cared even if she had been.

Though the trip was only estimated to last around twelve minutes for them to reach the moon, it felt like hours. Hours of time to dwell on their mission and imagine all the possible horrors that awaited them, to think of every possible outcome that could go wrong. She thought back to the conversation they'd had with Ikora Rey…

" _Alright, so we journey to the moon? And then what, link up with the Guardian you stationed there?" The Vanguards gave their signature 'turn and look at each other in understanding', and then she faced them again, her eyes filled with worry. She spoke in the manner that a doctor did when delivering terrible news to a patient; "Not quite. He_ was  _stationed on the moon, until we lost contact with him nearly a week ago. These recent events in such close alignment can't be a coincidence. If you happen to find him, it will be a miracle. But I fear the worst may have happened to him…"_

Aria wondered if that would happen to them if something were to go wrong; would they lose contact, only to be forgotten and isolated on the moon, turned into a frightening tale to scare other Guardians? She shuddered at the thought of becoming a legend of death.

"Aaaaaand, we're here. Welcome to the moon." None of the three Guardians onboard celebrated this momentous occasion, and instead stared out at the massive white rock, split down the side with a crack that covered nearly half of it, giving it the appearance of an broken nut. "Whip, transfer controls to manual." Ash gripped her pilot's controls, and began to enter the terraformed atmosphere of the moon that gave it its normal feeling gravity. Whip and Seraph had attempted to introduce their Guardian companions to the world of flight, and though all three were now learned in the art of aviation, Ash had shown a real knack for it, picking up the aerial piloting with ease.

Their descent was fast and efficient. Ash saw the ground rushing up to meet her, and she pulled out of her dive in an upward arc, losing her momentum. She circled around the general area for a bit, until what they were looking for showed up on one of the external cameras; to their starboard side, nearly a mile away in distance, was an enormous hole in the side of the moon. Green, noxious gases rose out of the pit, before dissolving in the oxygen-lacking atmosphere. Whether they were from flames or toxic fumes, Ash didn't care. The sight was a creepy one, and that was all she cared about. But unfortunately, their risky plan involved the hellish pit if they were going to enter the Hive fortress undetected.

She moved the ship over until it hovered around twenty feet above the ground, and a few hundred yards from the edge of the Hellmouth. "Alright, you can take them." Seraph assumed control of the ship, with Echo watching the external monitors. Whip would be the Ghost accompanying them down. After they'd discussed the plan with the young Ghost, she'd agreed on the condition that,  _'the next time you're on a mission, I'm coming with. I still haven't gotten to be in on any of the action!'_

"Prepare for Transmat in 3…2…1…" Ash readied herself in a standing position, and was prepared by the sudden foot high drop that she faced when Seraph teleported her and the other two. She watched Matt check his gear, and give a thumbs up. Aria nodded as well, to signal that she had her things as well. As for Ash, well she had what they needed wrapped in loops around her shoulder and forearm.

They walked in silence to the cliff, occasionally kicking a rock to break the silence, though no reprieve came. Upon reaching the Hellmouth, Matt peered over the edge of the pit, and stared into the depths below. He couldn't see any kind of ground from up on the ledge, and the glowing green mist blocked any kind of visibility he may have had if the height hadn't been so great. He turned to his friends.

"Well, there's no telling how far down that fall is, other than it'll likely kill us if we slip. Are we ready to go through with this?" Aria nodded, and Ash patted the grappling cables slung around her arm. Matt nodded, and held open his hand to take the hooks of the cables that Ash had passed him. Whip pointed out a cluster of rocks that would be very hard to shake loose, and with some effort, Matt wedged the tri-hooked metal pieces into the cracks. He gripped the ropes and tugged at them one by one, to test their durability. They did not budge.

"Alright, it's showtime people. I'll head down first, then Aria, then Ash. Whip, you give me updates on everyone's status, and just fly around to check and make sure none of us are in trouble. Try not to attract any attention if you can." The Ghost silently nodded, as the seriousness of the task they were about to perform weighed down even on him, and forced him to repress his usual jokes. Matt hooked himself up to the rope end of his grappling line, then walked over to the very edge of the pit. He saw a promising trail of hand and foot-holds, and began to climb down the side of the Hellmouth's inner walls.

The rocky outcrops were somewhat slippery from the green mist, and he had to hold even tighter onto the rocks to prevent his grip from slipping. Though they had the ropes, there weren't any stopping mechanisms, meaning that they were mostly for psychological comfort and from stopping them from falling into the pit. But even if the ropes did stop their fall, a fall of nearly one hundred and fifty feet, the length of their lines, might snap their backs or even kill them without slowing restraints. Ignoring the horrendous possibilities which threatened to consume his mind with fear, he reached over to grab the next handhold, and began his descent of nearly two hundred feet to the first physically stable platforms below.

As Matt moved down further, Aria too began to climb down the side of the Hellmouth, and eventually as did Ash, until finally all three Guardians were making their way silently and stealthily toward the Circle of Bones below. The wall Matt held onto, having at first remained completely vertical for the first forty feet or so down into the pit, now began to angle in, leaving him in an incline where he hung onto the side rather than stood on it. Cursing, he continued his slow but sure progress into the depths.

He could hear Aria breathing heavily from behind and above him, straining her muscles to keep her grip on the slippery outcrops. Whip hovered down to Matt's side and whispered to him, "Both Ash and Aria have a death grip on the wall, though they as well as yourself, seem to be tiring." Matt nodded, unable to waste any breath to respond. Indeed, his muscles were burning from the effort required to stay on the small hand and foot-holds. He remembered a few TV shows from his earlier life where people had to use their strength and muscular skills to overcome incredible feats like hand only rock-climbing, hanging from bars and ladders, and generally keep their stamina up so that they could keep moving across obstacle courses. If there was ever a contestant to win one of those shows, Matt was sure he was one-upping them with his current operation.

Suddenly, he heard a gravelly noise, and turned to his left to see a small rock come falling off the side of the wall, nearly fifteen feet away. He glanced up to see Aria's right leg searching wildly for another foothold as her previous one had just crumbled under her weight. Eventually she found one, and took a few seconds to catch her breath. He admired the way she'd refrained from making any kind of sound, from screaming or crying out in shock. The girl had guts, that was for sure. He looked back to his right and below as he continued to climb. There was only another thirty feet between him and the platform below, and he gritted his teeth, pushing his strength to the maximum and keeping his hold on the wall as he descended.

After another five minutes, Matt finally extended his foot to the right and touched ground. Heaving himself onto the platform, he felt his legs give out from under him, and he laid on the ground, forcing oxygen into his lungs so that his muscle stamina could return. Another few minutes passed, and he heard Aria make a grunting noise as she leapt onto the platform where Matt began to stand up again, having regained most of the feeling in his legs and arms. He watched her fall onto the ground in exhaustion, mimicking his earlier action. Now only Ash needed to reach the ground, and he gazed up above to track her progress down the upward slope.

Suddenly as she hung onto the edge of a particularly slippery outcrop, Matt watched Ash lose her grip and begin to fall into the depths below, his heart catching in his throat. Lukcily, she'd only had around fifteen feet of slack left, and she reached the end of her tether, and began to swing back like a pendulum. She was still a good twenty feet above the platform, her line having been tangled on some other rocks that extended out the side of the wall, and she swung back and forth in the air, nothing for her to hold onto, or to slow her movement with.

Aria now watched at Matt's side in worry as well. If Ash didn't do something, she was going to lose her momentum, and she'd be stuck out in the air, unable to move. Quickly Matt waved at her, grabbing her attention, and made a cutting motion, implying she slice the cable. She threw her empty hands up in a hopeless gesture, showing she didn't have one. Pulling his knife from his sheath, Matt gripped it by the blade, and aimed at Ash. She understood, and made her arms available to catch it. Reading off a silent prayer in his mind, Matt tossed the knife up the twenty feet, and watched it begin to arc down under gravity's influence-

Ash caught it by the handle, and waved at Matt showing she was ready. Matt got ready to give her the command, seeing that any momentum she had was quickly waning. On her next swing towards the platform, Matt made a swipe with his hand, and Ash cut the line in one motion.

Immediately she began to fall, and he saw that she hadn't had enough inertia to reach the platform. Out of sheer hope, he sprinted to the edge and slid forward on his stomach, reaching out his arm as she fell in front of him, and closing his grasp around her wrist with an unyielding grip.

Her weight instantly began to drag him over the edge with her, but he spread his legs, increasing his drag on the ground to slow himself before he went completely over. It was enough, and though his torso and arms hung off the edge, pulled down by Ash's body, his waist and below remained firmly planted on the platform. Ash looked at him with wide eyes, trying not to make any kind of noise, but completely and utterly terrified at the thought of falling, and Matt suddenly knew in his mind that he was  _not_  going to let her fall, no matter what. He reached his other arm above him to grab the ledge of the platform, and began to pull himself up into a better position to retrieve Ash.

Aria grabbed his legs and assisted in pulling him away from the edge. Once his chest was again on the platform, he gave his last burst of strength to pull Ash up until she too gripped the ledge and heaved herself onto solid ground. He fell back onto the ground as she collapsed next to him, and shook silently in terror at the ordeal. The whole event had lasted no more than fifteen seconds, but it felt as though time itself had stopped when she fell.

Without thinking, he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to look at him, appreciative of the comfort he was providing her. Her face probably looked as though she wanted to cry, but of course she couldn't as an Exo. She could only look at Matt and silently mouth,  _thank you_ , as she embraced the feel of his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.

Matt hated to break her out of her recovery, but they had to get moving. He looked at her and gave her a questioning thumbs up with his other hand, asking if she was ready to go. She took only a moment's hesitation, and nodded, perhaps a bit forcefully.

He stood up and extended his hand to her. She took it gratefully, and allowed him to help her back up on her feet. He glanced over at Aria who had been conversing quietly with Whip. The Ghost flew over, and told Matt what they'd been talking about. "Right now, we're in the Circle of Bones. We need to make our way around the Forgotten Swarm to a chamber called the World's Grave. That's where the library is, according to the last known records of the previous Guardian. If the Hive catch us, they'll raise an alarm, and you're going to need a lot more than your exit strategy to get out of here alive."

Matt nodded, showing he understood the gravity of their predicament. "Which way?" Instead of responding, Whip simply began to fly towards a large twelve foot doorway on the far left side of the Circle. The three Guardians followed him as quietly as they could, stopping every now and then to evade a patrolling pair or two of Acolytes, the main soldiers of the Hive. They made slow progress, but eventually reached Whip at the doorway, and entered through it.

After traversing a series of tunnels and hallways, the fireteam found themselves in a fairly large room, with a pool of dark water-like liquid situated on the ground, and a staircase leading up to an organ-looking device. It was golden, and looked more like some kind of instrument than a library of the Hive's records. Still, he supposed their architecture was likely different from that of his own, the reason being that their species consisted of goddamn sorcerers and sadistic religious freaks who worshipped an entity bent on humanity's destruction.

Whip looked at the console of gadgets and machinery in that made up the control board of the library. "I can start to rip files whenever you want, but be warned; this thing looks like its important, and that usually means that alarms are likely going to go off as soon as I touch this thing." The three looked at each other once, and then Matt turned to the Ghost, determination in his voice; "Do it."

A blue beam shot from Whip's eye, penetrating the outer shell of the library and reaching the mysterious files inside. The Ghost began to absorb information, expanding slightly as he did so. Matt had expected some kind of alarm to start ringing, but he didn't hear anything at all. Silence didn't mean that there weren't any alarms though, it just meant he couldn't hear them, and hopefully that if something  _was_  hearing them, that they would take a long time before reaching the three Guardians who stood ready to face off against whatever opponents the Hive had to throw at them.

He still didn't see or hear anything coming from the doorway that they'd entered from, but that didn't stop him from detecting motion to his lower left. He turned his head to stare at the pond of dark, blackish water. He wondered what had caught his attention before he saw a thrall rising from below the depths, its body forming as it began to step out from the pool and land on the ground with a wet, muddy  _smack._

"They're coming out of the pool!" he yelled, and he turned to his left to face down the many thrall who were beginning to appear from the black liquid and move in to attack.

Ash and Aria shifted their aim to the thralls below, and opened fire. Bullets peppered their bodies and the water, shooting droplets of liquid mixed with thrall insides into the air. Now the sound came, as the thralls began to scream their tortured sounds of agony. "There's so much in here, they've broken the Bekenstein limit!" Matt heard Whip say from somewhere behind him. He ignored it before he began to wonder what the hell the Bekenstein limit was, and just focused on keeping the thralls at bay while the Ghost worked. There were too many popping up though, and he knew that if Whip didn't finish soon, that their position at the top of the stairs would be overwhelmed.

"Any day now!" he called, hoping to urge the Ghost to work a bit faster. "Hold on, I've almost… there! I've got all the data that was in there, let's get out of here!"

Matt didn't need to be told twice. He stopped firing just long enough for he and his two companions to break away, and escape through the doorway that they'd originally entered in. Thrall continued to pour out of the pool, and though there'd been a minute respite as the thralls tried to follow their movement, they now came at the Guardians in full force, forming a large horde of death and decay behind them.

The Guardians sprinted through the corridors, following their escape strategy toward an exit that the previously stationed Guardian's records marked as 'The Temple of Crota'. Though it wasn't the  _only_  way out, it was by far the closest and fastest, so it was where they headed.

They continued to run and sprint with the onslaught of thralls unrelentingly chasing them throughout the passageways. Finally, after jumping out of a small pit onto a ledge above, Matt saw that the exit was roughly only a hundred feet away, beckoning to them. He almost laughed at how close escape was.

Then the Acolytes and Knights that had been hidden behind all the pillars in the room stepped out of cover, and he felt his resolve dissolve faster than it had appeared.

Ash and Aria turned to the sound of the border of thralls rapidly approaching from the tunnels below. They too saw the unconquerable force that had gathered to ambush them, armed with large cannons and shredders. There weren't any odds to be calculated, there  _were_  no chances here. Aria raised her rifle, ready to fight to the end, while Ash placed her hand on Matt's shoulder. "Hey, thanks for saving me earlier, when it counted. It was nice while our luck lasted." There was a smile to her voice, and he could tell she had accepted their fate.

As for Matt, he'd done nothing of the sort. He felt his anger grow at his friends' helplessness, at the Hive and their armies preparing to invade Earth, at the fact that Whip would never be able to give the Hive's records over to the Vanguards, and that he, Ash, and Aria would be forgotten, their sacrifices unappreciated by anyone but each other. He felt his rage boil over, and suddenly he was calm. He looked at the Hive with nothing but contempt in his eyes, with an assurance that they were all going to pay for their mistake in thinking they could kill him. Blue sparks traveled up and down his arms, emitting tiny arcs of electricity wherever they appeared.

He didn't know if he was going to make it out of here, but one thing was for goddamn certain; every single Hive son-of-a-bitch that stood in this room was not going to leave it alive. He drew his knife, and charged into the chamber.

He weaved between the ranges of the Knights' swords, dodging every swing and swipe that came his way. Again and again, he drove his electrified knife into the bodies and heads of the Hive spawn that had tried to ambush them, willing his anger to seep into the blade and force the Hive soldiers to understand just how much he hated them before they crumbled away into ashes. Limbs were severed time and time again, and many Acolytes found themselves falling on their faces as their legs were literally ripped out from under them and thrown away. The fight passed around Matt in a blur, who barely even registered what he was doing except that he was showing the Hive who the hell they were dealing with.

Finally, he turned to face the pit that the thrall had finally reached behind Ash and Aria, and threw a grenade into it. Two seconds passed, and suddenly all of the thrall ceased to exist as the flaming explosion engulfed them and instantly vaporized them.

Suddenly, he felt the fight leave his body, and he fell to his knees, exhausted at his furious energy leaving his body in such a quick fashion. Ash rushed over to him, and gripped his shoulders. "Do you realize what you just did?!"

"Gave myself a headache?" guessed Matt, as bells rang inside his brain, threatening to shatter his eardrums. "Well maybe that, but you also just  _annihilated_ an entire group of Hive soldiers when we had almost no chance for survival. You saved us!" With a relieved and grateful laugh, Ash suddenly hugged Matt, pulling him closer to her in a tight squeeze that was probably meant to show him her gratitude, but ended up only threatening to break his ribs. "You're welcome, now please let go before you crush my spine!" Ash obliged as Aria watched on, laughing at both the spectacle in front of her, and from the sheer disbelief that they'd managed to survive. Matt turned to her.

"Hey, Aria. You know about Guardians better than either me or Ash here. What the hell did I just do?" She returned his gaze and said thoughtfully, "Well, to me it looked like you drew enough power from your light that you were able to call upon the arc energy of the traveler, and enter a Bladedancer's trance. They're Hunters who wield their arc energy to devastate their opponents through electrified hand-to-hand combat, and it looks like you were able to kick some major ass with it."

Matt nodded, and then pointed toward the now unguarded exit. "Thanks. Now that we've got that out of the way, do we want to leave?"

The trio stepped over the ash piles of the Hive that Matt had killed, and walked back out into the sunlight surface of the moon. Their joy only lasted a moment before Matt pointed to something lying on the ground and said, "Look." Aria followed the direction of his finger to see the body of a Guardian at the doorstep of the temple.

Whip flew over to it, and analyzed it. "There's nothing left… not even the light… but his armor matches the description of the missing Guardian." Aria and the other two gave a moment of silence, in honor of their fallen comrade. "There's no point in trying to bring him back with us, it's just armor and ash that's left. But where's his Ghost? It may have additional data." Aria looked around the area surrounding the body, but saw no trace of it. Both Ash and Matt turned up empty-handed as well. Aria was about to turn and tell Matt and Ash to split up before she saw a figure standing on one of the lunar hills in front of them, gazing down at their search.

It was a female Exo, dressed in Hunter garb. Her face was white, and she wore a ripped cloak around her head and shoulders. She did nothing other than stare at the three Guardians down below. Aria lightly hit Matt with the back of her hand, and pointed at the mysterious stranger. He saw her, and immediately called out, "Hey, who are you? What are you doing here?"

The Exo stranger said nothing, but reached into a pocket of her cloak. She retracted it, and with it pulled out the missing Ghost in her hand. Before anyone could say anything, she brought her arm back, and tossed it to them. Ash caught it with an outstretched arm. The three turned to look at it. It had remnants of the same dark liquid that Matt had found in the wall on Earth, and its eye was cracked. The Ghost was obviously dead, though why the stranger had it in her pocket was a mystery. They turned back to ask, but by the time they'd found where the figure had stood before, she had vanished.

Whip saw the silent exchange, and hovered over to the Ghost. He may not have had any idea who the cloaked Exo was, but he knew how to extract date from deactivated Ghosts for sure, and that's precisely what he began to do. After a few moments, he stopped, and nodded to signal that he had finished. "We should take it back to the city, and reunite it with the traveler's light. With luck, it'll be absorbed and its light will be dispersed to create new Ghosts." Aria looked over towards the unnamed Guardian's body at Whip's suggestion, and whispered sadly, "You're right, Whip. And besides, it's probably what he would have wanted." With heavy hearts and a dead Ghost, they walked out into the lunar landscape, flagging down the Javelin to take them home.

* * *

 

"Ikora Rey was right, there was a lot of nonsense that was basically just religious text about the Darkness. A lot of the runes are foreign to me though, so maybe we should just give it to the Cryptarch, for him to decipher. He likes challenges like that." Whip debriefed the Guardians on all the info he'd retrieved from the library, as Seraph and Echo listened as well. The ship was on auto-pilot, having been placed into warp-space before the occupants of the Javelin had arranged the makeshift meeting.

"However, there are two big pieces of information that I feel need to be discussed here." He said the next sentence to the three in front of him with a sad, but unsurprised tone in his voice. "Our worst fears are confirmed; the hive are preparing to invade Earth." There was no intake of breath, no sudden gasp from their mouths; they just sat there with grim looks on their faces, and listened. "I got that from the dead Ghost. Most of its files were gone, erased as part of a fail-safe maneuver, but it managed to save key pieces of information until the bitter end. It had been tortured by a Wizard before its death, and I've got all the dialogue here. It's pretty gruesome stuff for a Ghost, and I'd rather not go into it in detail." Whip shuddered. "But basically, the Wizard asked continuous questions about our defenses, our weak points, possible areas of invasion to enter the City, that sort of stuff."

"Now, the second piece of info here is kind of big, but also very confusing. The library's records tell of some being, some entity that communicates between the Darkness and the Hive, issuing the Darkness's orders to the Hive army. There's no name here, but whoever it is, they're referred to as 'the Messenger'. This go-between apparently relays all of the Darkness's thoughts to the Hive, and they follow its orders without question. Our next priority should be tracking down this 'Messenger', and ending them."

"What about the Exo stranger we saw?" piped up Aria, considering the possibility. "She had the dead Ghost on her, and gave no explanation for her appearance. Could she be the Messenger?" Whip was already shaking his body. "No, I thought about that. While I still wonder how she got that dead Ghost, it wouldn't make sense for her to immediately give it to us without us even asking, and let us see the Hive's plan for Earth if she was the architect behind the attack. She's definitely involved here, though in what way I'm unsure of, but she's not the one we're looking for." Aria sat back down in a slouch, back to square one on figuring out this new mystery that they'd been given.

Seraph glanced over at a winking light on the console. "Look, we've almost reached Earth. Let us Ghosts debrief the Vanguards, they'd more than understand your absence. You three should head back to your rooms and get some rest. You've all had a long, terrifying day."

* * *

 

 

Matt stood in the shower, his head pressed against the glass panes that surrounded him. He'd arrived home, and immediately set to work on washing himself vigorously, as though if he cleaned hard enough, he could wipe his memory clean of the terrifying images that bounced around his mind, opening doors into the dark recesses of his mind as the pictured the darkest scenarios that could have happened had he not managed to accidentally go into his Bladedancer's trance.

He turned off the water and grabbed a towel, shaking his head to clear his head of the aforementioned thoughts. He didn't want to think about his friends' broken bodies or light-drained Ghosts like the unnamed Guardian at the foot of the temple. All he wanted was to sleep and forget about all of this. But even then, he might not escape it if he became plagued with nightmares of the experience, and in a dream, one often couldn't tell the difference between reality and fiction. As he sat down on the bed, dry and dressed, he thought that perhaps sleep wasn't such a great idea.

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door, and eagerly walked over to open it for the welcome distraction. He pulled it agape to see Ash standing in the shadow of the doorway. "Hey, can I come in? I just want to talk." "Yeah, no problem," he said, and turned back to sit back down on the bed, leaving the door open for her to enter. She was dressed in her black undersuit, and she walked over to sit down next to him on the bed.

"Look, when I first heard your plan to grapple down into the Hellmouth, I thought it was crazy. But I didn't mind, I figured that we needed some kind of stupid, insane plan for us to pull it off." She laughed slightly, though it was mirthless. "And then I slipped, and the only thing I could think of was,  _'well great, this guy I've known for four days just got me killed'_. But then you did something surprising." She looked him straight in the eyes at this, and her expression was serious, though the smile playing around her mouth said that whatever it was, the only words that would leave her mouth would be positive ones. "You kept trying to help me, even when you saw that I was going to fall short of the edge. You never once gave up, and even as I pulled you down with me into that hellish pit, you didn't even consider letting me go." Finally the smile presented itself. "I could see it in your eyes, your determination and will to not let me go, even as I dangled there threatening to drag us both down into the dark below. It was the same expression you had on your face when you stopped us from getting slaughtered by that ambush team."

She gazed down for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried to come up with words to express how she felt. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I think you're a good leader. I think you've got a great set of traits, one being that you put others lives before your own, and well I guess…" She leaned forward and wrapped him in an embrace. He hugged her back, unsure of how to respond. This hug was different than he relieved, 'in-the-moment' embrace that had left him gasping for air, this one had been thought out, was purposeful, was… gentle. "I just want to say thank you. Thank you for saving our lives, mine especially, and it's an honor to fight by your side."

She let him go slowly, and gave him another smile. Then, she stood up and exited his room, closing the door behind her. He watched her leave as his heart pounded in his chest, completely surprised at what had just happened. Why did he feel like following her, and telling her just as many compliments as she'd just graciously given him, for no apparent reason?

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and laid back on the bed. He was just tired, that was all, and he needed some sleep, nightmares be damned. He stared at his ceiling as his consciousness slowly faded out, and the last thought he had on his mind before sleep took him was that of Ash's smiling face, and her warm embrace.

 


	6. Remnants of the Past

Her arms crossed and supporting her as she leaned against the railing, Ash stood in a grassy patch of the tower's large courtyard, gazing out at the city from the balcony-like ledge.

It had been nearly two weeks since her terrifying journey into the Hellmouth, along with Aria and Matt. New reports continued to pop up of Hive sightings all around the Cosmodrome and the City walls, leading to a record high of Guardian activity on Earth. It seemed that they were now ready to make their motives known to the public, and wasted no energy in establishing themselves on humanity's home turf. In that time, Ash and Aria had practiced harnessing the light to enter their own 'super' modes. Both had managed to successfully produce a Fist of Havoc and a Nova Bomb, respectively. Matt had continued to work at focusing his energy, and had now achieved summoning a Golden Gun as well, which engulfed his hand cannon in flames as well as his body, turning him into a walking sun.

But Ash wasn't thinking about any of that.

Ever since the operation at the Hellmouth, she'd come out every other morning or so, and stand against the guardrail that prevented anyone from falling off the tower. Her brushes with death in the Hive's disturbing home had given her a new appreciation for life. Despite having been literally raised from the dead, she found that she'd been taking the new life as a Guardian that she'd been gifted for granted. Not anymore. Every night, she saw herself hanging from that swinging rope, Matt and Aria's worried faces staring at her. She relived every petrifying second of her fall once she'd cut the line, with only Matt's resolve and strength saving her from the depths of the pit.

Once they'd been cornered in the Temple of Crota, it was again Matt's determination that kept them alive. Though he may have entered his Bladedancer's trance by accident, there was no arguing that it had saved all three of their lives, and for that she was eternally grateful. Her new outlook on life had given her a better scope of understanding just how precious of a miracle it could be, how incredible of an experience that life was. And without Matt, she wouldn't be able to thank him at all for enabling her to exist one more moment in its beauty.

In fact, she thought about Matt quite a lot lately. After each of the last few missions they'd gone on, small ones around the Cosmodrome, she found herself picturing his determined face in her mind's eye, and trying to remember how soft his embrace was-

"You're doing it again." Whip's exasperated tone snapped her out of her imaginative stupor, and she turned to him as he hovered closer to her face.

"Doing what again? Standing out here?" Her electric blue eyes narrowed at the Ghost, daring him to say what he had been about to. He wasn't intimidated. "No, thinking about the moon, about  _him_. Every time your thoughts turn to him, you get this weird, dopey smile on your face. It doesn't fit in with your metallic features well." Embarrassed, she forced herself to adopt a look of seriousness, hoping nobody else had seen her face the way Whip had.

"Look, it's been two weeks, and you haven't even talked to the guy about any of this. Why not bring up a discussion?" She shook her head, annoyed at the Ghost's practical solution to the problem. "It's not that, it's… look, it doesn't matter. Can we just drop it, at least for a while?" Whip snorted. "Fine, but don't think you've escaped forever. Sooner or later, you're gonna need to work through this."

Whip was right, eventually she would need to process what she was feeling. But for now, she just wanted to enjoy the sunrise lighting up the horizon and bringing light to the City…

"Ash?" Startled, she turned to see Aria and Matt a few feet away. "Well speak of the devil…" muttered Whip.

Ash backhanded the Ghost and sent him flying away a few feet. "Hey! How long have you guys been standing there?" She pitted hope against hope that they hadn't overheard her conversation with Whip. "Not long, we know not to bother you when you're out here," said Aria, and Ash prayed a silent  _thank you_  to whoever was listening. "Okay, well what's up?"

"I don't know, 'young and eager' over here just dragged me out of my room too." Aria stared the Hunter down for the condescending term, and Matt held his hands up to show he meant no harm. She gave a small huff of annoyance. "Well as I told Matt, though it appears he wasn't listening, the Vanguards want to see us. Echo received a notification asking for us to meet with them, and I just wanted to let you know. You coming?"

"Yeah, I'm coming." Turning away from the dazzling sunrise, Ash joined her fireteam, and together they walked into the Hall of Guardians.

* * *

 

"A new lead? You're sure?" "Well of course we're sure, otherwise we wouldn't have called you in here, would we?"

Ash listened to Matt trade questions with the Vanguards, trying to get new information about the so-called lead. "Alright, I'm sorry. Could you please elaborate for us?"

The Warlock Vanguard gave him a withering stare for questioning their sources, but proceeded to explain; "We've had every available Ghost monitoring all known comm channels of the Fallen and Hive on Earth. At around 4:17 in the morning today, we picked up a signal transmission to the Hive in the Cosmodrome. Though we couldn't hear the conversation of course, we did manage to get a reading on the origin of the signal. It was transmitted from a distant location somewhere on Mercury." This just confused Ash even more. "Wait, Mercury? Why from there?"

"Well, we're not quite sure. But once I finish debriefing the info, you'll know why we're so on edge." Ikora's eyes indeed looked grave, as though every scrap of news they managed to pick up put them in a deeper and deeper hole. "You see, after that transmission ended, the same entity that contacted the Hive sent a transmission to a group of Fallen that we didn't even know existed, and it's quite by accident and some luck that we managed to receive any kind of signal from them." Zavala took over, giving Ikora a moment of respite.

"The Messenger," said Ash, and Zavala nodded. "That is our suspicion, though we could be wrong."

"Now, this is where things get complicated. You see, whomever sent those signals appears to be in league with both the Hive  _and_  the Fallen. The thought of just those two armies working together already makes us uneasy, but the transmission's location was on Mercury, a world that we lost to the Vex." Zavala didn't say 'vex' so much as he spat the word, expressing his hatred. "The Vex are a race of robotic organisms that transform planets into machines, killing all life wherever they find it, and stamping out whatever light they come across. They share a single mind across a billion units. If the Traveler hadn't stopped them with its sacrifice, we wouldn't be here today, and Earth would be no more than a massive machine of theirs to use against other life."

The three Guardians sat in stunned silence. "If they're such a big threat, why haven't we heard of them yet?" Zavala turned to look at Aria, who had voiced the question. "Well, luckily we don't encounter them often. They mostly stay on Venus according to most reports. I don't think we've had any kind of encounter with the Vex in nearly a decade." Zavala now faced all three of the Guardians, making sure they understood well what he was about to say next. "Now, if the Vex are somehow in league with both the Fallen and the Hive, it backs us into a very dark corner indeed. We haven't seen a gathering of the Darkness's armies this large since the collapse. We need more info, and for that we're sending you three off to investigate the new Fallen group we found, and if you can, stop them. Information is our priority here as with the Hellmouth mission, but if an entire section of the Fallen army suddenly was thrown into disarray, it could buy us a few weeks' time, maybe even months."

Ash locked her gaze onto her mentor and asked, "How do you propose we do that, exactly?" The Titan Vanguard nodded in approval of his apprentice's question, appreciating her drive to achieve all possible goals. "Fallen Houses often separate into groups, as we've seen here. The Fallen group in particular that we found appears to belong to the House of Devils. Each group has a Prime-Servitor, a machine God of their creation that gives them their energy through replenishing their ether, their life-substance. Take out the Servitor, and the group will slowly die out without Ether to sustain themselves."

"And where is this Fallen group?" Matt asked the next question with seemingly an air of nonchalance, but when Zavala answered, his reaction was quite noticeable; "In the middle of a lost city in the European dead zone. The name of the city has long since been forgotten, but we know one of its identifying landmarks is a large structure, the top long since destroyed. It stands above the rest of the city, near a river with a bridge that connects the general area to the opposite banks of the water." Ash saw Matt stiffen immediately, his face giving away the powerful emotions he must have been feeling inside.

"Got something to tell us?" asked Cayde, curious as to why the young Hunter gave such a drastic reaction. Matt inhaled deeply, using his calming technique, and explained.

"That structure's name was Big Ben, and it used to be a clock tower. The name actually refers to the bell, not the clock, that hung inside. And the surrounding area is Winchester, London." Ash could see everyone else's shocked face at Matt's new information. "And how do you know this?" asked Ikora in awe.

Matt stared at Ash for the briefest of moments, pain apparent in his face, and then turned back to the Vanguards.

"Because I used to live there."

* * *

 

The Javelin flew towards their destination quickly, the minutes passing in silence. After Matt had dropped his bombshell of a reveal, they'd been sent off on their mission to retrieve any info they could on the Messenger from the new group of Fallen's databases, and possibly destroy their Servitor. Ash piloted the craft with ease, glancing over every so often to look at Matt in the co-pilot's seat, saying nothing but giving a blank stare forward as they continued on towards the ruins of his past home. She tried to think of words to say, to show him that he had support. Though her mind fumbled with different openings, Matt broke the silence first.

"You know, I wasn't born here in Europe. I actually grew up in the US, but once my dad died, my mother couldn't really stick around. I guess she needed a big change in her life, to take her mind off things or whatever. In any case, I moved to London when I was just beginning High School." Ash listened, trying to keep up with the story, but he kept saying too many foreign terms to her. The US? High School? What the hell were those? Ignoring her mind's ramblings, she listened to hear him say, "Life was good there, I'll admit. I made friends, I tried to keep the twins out of trouble." He gave a genuine sounding laugh as he remarked on past memories. "Oh man, the twins. They were fraternal of course, a sister and a brother of mine. They always liked to be mischievous, and play pranks on just about anyone they could. Authority didn't intimidate them in the slightest." His smile faded. "I don't even know what happened to them." He looked at Ash who was staring at him with real empathy on her face, and he faced forward again avoiding her gaze.

"Anyway, life continued on. I joined up with the British Armed Forces once I hit eighteen, and stuck with them for a few years. There was really nothing to do I thought, since the Traveler had pretty much unified most countries and created peace." He laughed. "I'd loved film-making and had thought I'd go to college for that, but apparently life had other plans for me. I'd thought it'd given me a second chance when I got discharged." He turned in his seat to look at both Ash and Aria as well, who had been listening to his story with interest. Both seemed surprised at the mention of him having been discharged. "See, there was this incident. A bunch of the guys got drunk at some gathering, and things got a little wild. I was there as well, but I didn't have anything to do with what happened next. They started teasing the girls with us a bit, and suddenly everything went to hell when a couple of them started crying 'rape'." He shook his head.

"I guess the alcohol clouded their judgement or something, but all I know is that in a split second, a bunch of the drunk guys are grabbing these girls, forcing them to- well, I won't go into it. Anyway, I freaked out a bit, and tried to stop what was going on. Got knocked out by one of the drunk guys who thought I was trying to take his prize or some shit. Woke up in an infirmary, and without waiting to hear my side of the story, I got kicked out of the Forces along with the rest of the assholes who'd gone and tried to assault the girls. People thought I'd gotten smacked from one of the girls defending themselves or something, and since none of them really knew us too well, they couldn't say for certain that I hadn't attacked them, and there went my defense."

"I moved back home for about a year, before agreeing to go trekking with one of my buddy's across Russia, maybe get a nice change of landscape, appreciate nature, that kind of stuff. On my way there, I got mugged by a couple of car-jackers, and next thing I know, I've got Seraph hovering over me telling me I'm a Guardian." He threw his hands up in a  _done_  sort of fashion. "And that, ladies, is the story of my life."

Ash didn't know what to say. She didn't know whether to ask him about his unfair trial, about his siblings, or his friend. In the end, she settled to ask, "Did you enjoy your life more than this one?"

He pondered for a moment, and then replied, "Well I definitely appreciated the fact that most of humanity wasn't brutally brought to the edge of extinction yet, but would I go back? No. My life is now with you guys." Ash felt a small burst of elation at his answer, and it gave her enough courage to ask a different question; "Did you find love?"

His gaze snapped to her, his face questioning. She quickly tried to backpedal. "I mean, did you? At least you've got your memories, I still don't know who I am or what my past life had for me. I'm wondering what you had in yours at least." She gave a straight face, hoping he'd take the bait. He continued to look at her with that stare, and simply said, "Once." He turned away, and refused to elaborate, much to the chagrin of Ash.

"Alright Guardians, get ready. We're coming up on our destination." Whip's voice echoed throughout the interior of the ship, and Ash once again stared out the viewport with her hands at the controls, eager to focus on anything else but the previous conversation. "Where?" A small icon on the ship's navigational map popped up, and she guided the Javelin over to it.

As the Vanguards had said, there was a river that ran along the side of the ruined city. A bridge cut through it, connecting the city to the other side of the canal. "Winchester bridge," she hear Matt say, "I can't believe it's still intact." Indeed, only a few small chunks of the bridge and several support beams were missing. The rest of it was still very much usable. Turning her attention to the landing zone, Ash lowered the Javelin until it hovered around thirty feet above the ground. Seraph materialized, prepared to go with them on their journey. She released the controls, allowing Whip to repossess the ship. "Alright, transmitting in 3…2…good luck Guardians. Before Ash could tell him that they wouldn't need it, she felt her boots hitting solid ground, and watched as the Javelin flew off as to not attract attention.

"Alright, where to?" asked Aria. "It's down that street over there. We follow that to about a mile from here. I can detect fallen comm signals from even this distance." The three Guardians followed the path until they reached the eroded street. Suddenly, Matt veered off towards a heavily damaged building on the other side of the road.

"Where are you going?" Aria called out. He turned back to face them. "Look, there's just something I gotta see really quick." Without any more explanation, he faced forward again, and walked up a small set of stairs to the front door of the building. Aria turned to Ash, as did Seraph. She just shrugged, and followed Matt, the other two deciding to follow as well.

Matt was jiggling the door knob when she arrived. "This thing is locked, but it's quite old, and with a little force-" he stopped talking as he managed to break the centuries-old mechanism, and the door swung open. He immediately entered, and Ash trailed behind, wondering what he could possibly be doing. As if he could read her mind, he began to ascend a flight of stairs and said, "This place used to be an apartment complex. The room we're looking for is here on the second floor."

Indeed, once Matt reached the top of the stairs, he made a beeline for a room on the right of the hallway, it's identifying plaque long since faded. Matt wasted no time to break the doorknob this time, and instead kicked the door open. It swung into the room with a loud bang as some of the wood splintered as well. The three Guardians and Ghost went in.

The room was bare, nothing to show for the journey. "I guess whoever lived here last must have packed up, and left. Probably sometime around the collapse's start." Matt talked both to himself and to the other Guardians. He walked over to a section of the blank wall, and Ash began to worry. "Matt, are you alright?" He gave no answer, and instead attempted to grasp the smooth surface of the wall.

Suddenly, his fingers caught on something, and to Ash's surprise, he lifted away a small chunk of the wall, revealing a small open space inside. Reaching his hands in, he grabbed something and pulled it out. It was a small metal box, complete with a metal lock to seal off any chance of it being opened. "Dammit, don't have the key anymore. Oh well." Unsheathing his knife, he hit the arc of the lock, causing it to shatter and fall off. Once the lock had been removed, he opened the box.

Looking over his shoulder, Ash saw that the box was full of pictures, photographs containing various people and places. Matt chose one at random, and she could see that in it was-

"Is that you?" Matt nodded. Though it definitely looked like Matt, she could see that it was a younger incarnation of him, still likely in his teenage years. He had his arm around two other teenagers, one a boy and one a girl. Ash looked at the current Matt, staring at the pictures. "Those were my best friends," he elaborated. "The guy there is Lucas, an amazing and outgoing person. I was supposed to be meeting with him for the Russia trip." He pointed at the girl with a single finger. "That's Sara, my best friend for as long as I could remember." He didn't say anything else, and Ash took the opportunity to ask, "Was this your room?"

He nodded. "I lived here once I got discharged. I kept this chest in here full of my favorite and most precious pictures. My mom would have kept them in a scrap-book, but I always had this weird worry, like if I didn't keep them safe, that they'd be lost. Maybe by a house fire, or a storm, I don't know." He looked at Ash and gave a small chuckle, thought it was mirthless. "I guess my instincts were right, weren't they?"

Ash couldn't see his face through his helmet, but she had a feeling that his face was full of pain at this moment. He turned back to the photographs, and picked out another one. This one was just of him and Sara, out at some amusement park. It was years later, and the progression of age was apparent in their faces; Matt had almost matured into the young man he was now, and Sara no longer looked like a teenager; they each gave the camera held up by Matt's hand a wide smile, both ones of genuine enjoyment. Ash looked from the photo to Matt.

"Did you love her?" Matt hesitated a few moments. Then, he spoke, and Ash understood why Matt had shied away from the topic before.

"I did. She died a few months later after we took this photo. See, we began to date towards the end of High School, but she was diagnosed with some kind of genetic disease that had plagued her family's generations for quite a long time." His voice grew heavy, and he sounded like he was struggling to push past a lump in his throat. "The Traveler nearly cured all possible diseased, even cancer, but we tried everything. Nothing worked. The problem wasn't with some foreign bacteria or strain, it was a fault in her DNA, her own genetic coding. So she was stuck with a degenerative disease that slowly killed her over the next few months, until she was finally committed to a hospital. I remember staying up late with her, just keeping her company through the dark times."

Matt reached up and pulled off his helmet. Running down his face were tears, as he recalled the saddening memories. "I remember her dying in my arms during the night. She didn't say anything, just looked at me, smiled, and…she was gone." Matt lifted his gloved hand up, and wiped away the drops of water that fell from his eyes. "If there was any kind of reason to make me want to go back to my old life, it'd be to see her just one more time." He looked over at Ash, and he smiled. It was such an odd sight, to see the leader and friend she'd depended on for the last few weeks smiling in the memory of his dead friend.

Ash didn't know how to respond in the face of her silently crying friend. She felt helpless, words of encouragement were not her strong suit. Aria and Seraph just looked on passively, also unsure of how to proceed. But Matt once again started the conversation she couldn't.

"That doesn't mean I'd want to go back, though. We had our time, and my life back then is in the past. The only thing that matters is now, and the future. All I can hope, is that both of you continue to be apart of it." Matt held open his arms, and Ash finally took an opportunity she understood. Aria also walked over, and the three embraced for a few precious moments.

Once they let go, Matt placed his helmet back on. "Seraph, can you please store this somewhere?" She hovered over, and dematerialized the box in a flash of blue. Matt turned back to Ash and Aria. "Alright, now we've got some information to steal.

* * *

 

Ash walked down the ruined street along with her two fireteam members. They had nearly reached the location where the Vanguards had detected the radio signal. Seraph stopped moving for a moment, and said, "There."

An abandoned and run down church stood approximately twenty meters in front of them. Upon first glance, she couldn't see how this was some sort of Fallen HQ, but once she gave the area a more focused look around, she spied Fallen crates and storage containers littered around the building. They were in the right place alright. She unslung her JIGOKU from her back, and saw Matt and Aria follow her example, each pulling out their respective weapons. With his hand cannon at the ready, Matt gestured to Ash that she needed to open the door. Grinning, she ran towards the entrance of the church and slammed into the doors at full force.

The large doors immediately crumpled under the pressure, and Ash braced her feet to slow her momentum. She heard a growl, and looked up to see that she has startled a single Fallen Vandal. It yelled in its foreign tongue at her, until she'd charged forward and tackled the creature to the ground. Matt and Aria came running in as she kept the Vandal on the ground by aiming her scout rifle directly at the center of his head, quite the motivation to remain still. Though it complied, it still uttered the strange language of the Fallen, likely cursing them in its native speech.

"This is actually a pretty good opportunity," said Matt from behind her, and he stepped forward to the Vandal, Seraph at his side. "Seraph, can you translate?" "Well, yes, but why?" Ash kept her aim trained on the Vandal in case it tried to pull any sort of trick. "Well, I'd rather just see if we can find out what we need from this guy, rather than searching all day for a database that may or may not even be here. Look at the state of the place these guys are staying in. I'm pretty sure this isn't a large group, considering they're hiding out in a broken down, easily entered church instead of some kind of fortified base." Seraph didn't respond, perhaps admitting to herself internally that he was right.

"Ask him about the Fallen's invasion plan." Seraph emitted a synthetic sounding chain of growls and grunts. The Vandal tossed its head back and made a huffing sound, presumably laughing at them. "That's fine, I didn't expect any luck there anyway. Ask him about the Messenger." The Vandal showed no sign of recognition after Seraph's translation, only confusion. "Clarify it, call them 'the one who speaks with the darkness'." Finally, the Vandal seemed to tense up, and was silent. It looked like they'd hit the mark. "Ash, give him a little incentive to talk." Happy to oblige, she fired a warning shot off next to his head. Chips of brick flew in all directions, and again the Fallen swore at them. After it had finished yelling obscenities, however, it began to talk in a hurried fashion.

"It says;  _'You seek the Diplomat. Your search will not be continued through my treachery. The Darkness's emissary will bring shadow and death upon your world, and my kind will pick clean the bones'."_ Again, the Vandal made its huffing noise, and Matt could see that they weren't going to get any more information out of it. But he wasn't going to brutally kill an unarmed prisoner. "Alright, tell him he has about thirty seconds to run before I place a bullet between his eyes." Seraph made the translation, but to their surprise the Vandal responded.

" ' _I won't be the one who needs to flee.'_  What is that supposed to mean?" Seraph asked, confused. Ash was about to ask the same thing when she heard an electrified humming from behind them, and she spun to face the new threat.

Descending from the rafters above was a massive Servitor, its body literally radiating either. "There's the Servitor!" she yelled, though Matt and Aria had already turned to meet it as well. It glared at them with its purple eye, and emitted a series of electronic hums and vibrations, probably something along the lines of,  _"I will destroy you now, puny Guardians."_

The Vandal on the ground rose quickly to its feet, and jumped onto Matt's back. He pulled out his knife, and thrusted it into the Vandal's neck, but the damage was already done. Using the distraction to its advantage, the Servitor fired off a purple bolt of energy that exploded at the feet of the three Guardians. It flung them in different directions, and Ash felt herself fly backwards and smash through a stained glass window before tumbling onto the ground, glass shards falling all around her. She pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, and looked back into the church. The Servitor was firing at Aria who danced around the interior of the church, narrowly missing being hit by the beams which forced the wooden pews in their way to shatter and burst into splinters. Matt lay on the ground next to the dead Vandal, slightly stirring. Ash rose to her feet, and charged back into the fight.

Jumping in through the same window she'd been thrown out of, the Servitor made note of Ash's entrance, and began to focus on her. Aria brought her arm back, charging up an aura of void energy, and hurled the Nova Bomb at the machine-god. It missed by just a few feet, and though it definitely injured the rampaging sphere, it was not going to kill it. That left Ash as the last resort. She looked over to Matt's prone body, and swore that she wasn't about to let the psychotic floating ball hurt him. She felt the familiar electric currents begin to lance up around her arms and legs. She aimed straight for the Servitor, and ran full sprint towards it.

Leaping into the air, she managed to grab ahold of the rim of its eye, and hang there. The Servitor seemed shocked at the action, and this gave her enough time to find footholds for her legs. She let go of the rim with her arms, brought them back, and focused all of her available arc energy into her fists. There was a single moment where Titan and machine were silent in preparation for the final blow. Then, she drove her electrified hands into its eye with as much force as she could muster.

All of the waves of energy created by her Fist of Havoc was channeled directly into the center of the Servitor, and completely obliterated its core. The stained glass windows of the church shattered from the shockwaves, and the empty shell of the Servitor fell to the ground, Ash still holding onto the exterior. Drained of her energy, Ash stepped from the sphere to the ground, and steadied herself against the husk of the once living machine. She turned to see Aria checking up on Matt, and she walked over to see him start to move in earnest.

"Oh, it's dead." Matt stated the obvious fact with a small tone of surprise, as though he were noting an unexpected change in the weather. He looked up at Ash to see her extended hand waiting to help him up. He took it.

"Well, we got some new info, and managed to destroy a Prime-Servitor. I'd call that a productive day." Matt gestured towards the smoking metal sphere. "I suppose we just-" He stopped talking as all three Guardians heard the roars and howls of Fallen, much more than they'd estimated. And they sounded close by. They probably weren't going to be too happy with the news of their dead ether supplier, and Matt shouted, "Back to the ship! Back to the ship!"

They took off running towards the front of the church, in the direction of where they'd first arrived. Every so often throughout the mile-long sprint, Ash would turn and see the horde of Fallen chasing them, firing arc bolts from their wire rifles, barely missing the Guardians who ran from them. Seraph hailed the Javelin, giving out orders; "Operation is a success! We need extraction immediately, I repeat, immediately!"

Finally, they came back into the crumbling ruins of Winchester, and they saw the black outline of the Javelin rushing through the air to meet them at their position. But the Fallen were still behind them, and they weren't going to have enough time to wait for extraction. "Get to the bridge!" yelled Matt, and they began running towards the crumbling bridge that had so quickly become their place of refuge.

"Tell them to fly over the bridge, and get ready to transmat us as soon as we're in range!" shouted Matt, and Ash assumed he was talking to Seraph. The now had reached the base of the bridge, and as they began to cross it, she could see the Javelin speeding towards their location.

Upon reaching the middle of the bridge with Fallen not far behind, they waited for a few precious seconds. Each one felt like an eternity to Ash, trading every moment waiting for the Javelin for one less second of safety as the Fallen quickly approached them. The ship was just about to fly over the bridge when Matt yelled, "Jump off! Go!" Ash turned, and leapt from the ledge of the bridge along with Aria and Matt, escaping the clutches of the Fallen who pursued them. There was a moment of exhilarating free-fall, and then-

Her butt and back hit the seat of the pilot's chair, and Ash wasted no time in fastening her restraints. She checked to see that Matt and Aria were wearing theirs as well, and they both gave her the thumbs up. Ash took command of the controls, and accelerated them away from the ruins of Winchester, and into the sky. Once they'd put enough distance between them and the Fallen, Ash let go of the sticks, allowing Whip to have control again. She turned to look at her two heavily breathing fireteam members, and said, "You know, we've really got to stop ending all of our missions with near-death experiences."

Both Matt and Aria busted out laughing, and Ash grinned in her helmet. The seriousness of the situation was lost as they enjoyed themselves in the safety of the ship.

Matt stopped for a moment to ask, "Seraph could you please retrieve that box?" It materialized on Matt's lap, and he opened it again. Ash watched him dig through the photos, and pull out three; the one with him, Lucas, and Sara, the one of him and Sara alone, and another that had Matt with two shorter kids, a boy and a girl, who both appeared to be the his twin siblings. "These are the only ones I need," he said, and he put them inside a pouch of his belt. "I don't care about the rest." Without a word, Seraph dematerialized the box, and nobody asked where.

Ash liked to think that Matt wasn't trying to hold onto his past; he was trying to bring a small part of it with him, but continuing to make a new life for himself with her and Aria, as she herself had been forced to do without her memory. She smiled, and though the ride passed by in silence, it was the comfortable silence that fell upon friends who didn't need to say anything for their feelings to be understood.

* * *

 

"I don't think that this 'Diplomat' is a different person, I think it's the same one with a different title. Different cultures, different terminology for the one they speak to," finished Matt, giving his report to the Vanguards.

"I see," said Ikora, and both Cayde and Zavala nodded in agreement. "In addition to confirming that the Fallen are in league with the same being who communicates with the Hive, you've destroyed a Prime-Servitor. That kill alone has just bought us months of time to plan our next move. Thank you, Guardians." All three of the Vanguards bowed to the three newborn Guardians.  _No_ , thought Ash,  _that wasn't the right word_. No longer were they completely inexperienced Guardians, stumbling their way through discoveries. They were established, they were known. They'd fought for and supported each other the last few weeks, and Ash had begun to depend on Aria and Ash as though they were parts of her body, extensions of herself. No longer would they be coddled with the air of innocent children, but they were treated as equals. It felt right.

As the trio exited the Hall of Guardians, Matt turned to both Ash and Aria, asking, "Anyone up for a trip into the City? Maybe buy a drink as a reward to ourselves?" Aria, usually stubborn about her anti-alcohol consumption, now said, "Yeah, sure. I think I need some after this last mission." Matt turned to Ash and said, "What about you? You good to go?"

Ash thought of what Matt had told her about Sara, and his feelings of affection towards her. His past life, broken and shattered by the loss of someone he had so deeply cared about. She thought about her own status, and what he considered her to be. She knew that she hadn't reached the same level of friendship that he'd had with Sara, but she thought, staring into his expectant face, that she could sure start to try right now.

"Sure, a drink sounds great." Matt nodded, and together the three Guardians walked into the courtyard, eager to enjoy each other's company and await their next adventure together.


	7. A New Mission

Aria laughed at the joke Matt had just told. Of course he'd had to change it a bit to fit in with the times, as it had been mostly meant for a twenty-first century audience, but with the proper modifications, she'd understood it just fine. Ash too chuckled in enjoyment of the humor. They sat in the same booth at the bar they'd visited before, as they hadn't really bothered to find a different restaurant. This one had been great the first time, so why bother trying to fix what wasn't broken?

She raised the bottle of beer she had in her hand to her lips, and drank deeply from it. "Man, where has this stuff been all my life? I  _really_  needed this." Matt and Ash laughed at Aria's admission of liking alcohol, and indeed she could feel the tension and stress she'd carried with her for the last few weeks slowly ebbing away with every sip.

Suddenly, Echo appeared in front of her. "Aria, you've got an urgent transmission coming in. Somewhere… oh my." She waved him away. "Can't it wait? We're all relaxing here."

In an instant, Seraph and Whip materialized as well. "We're getting that too," said Seraph, her body pulsing with blue light as it did when some kind of function was being used. "Whatever it is, it's not the Vanguards, and it's on a private frequency. I suggest you three answer it." The three Guardians looked around the restaurant, now serious as the situation had slowly escalated. "Alright, let's step outside here for a moment, guys." Nodding, the other two followed him out of their seats, and walked casually out of the restaurant. None watched them as they silently made their exit.

Once outside, they found a somewhat isolated alley near the side of the restaurant. They entered, and allowed their Ghosts to materialize. "Alright, let's hear it," said Matt.

The Ghosts each expanded into their spherical mode, allowing the radio signal to become stronger. It was a moment before they heard a feminine voice begin to speak;

"I've watched you for a while now, Guardians. I've seen what you've accomplished, from your journey into the hive, to your fight with the machine-god. But there are enemies out here much worse than them, enemies that you would not believe." It sounded genuine enough, and Aria wondered who could possibly be contacting them. It wasn't anyone they knew, that was for sure. "When you can, come find me. We have items of interest that we must discuss."

The Ghosts pulsed, trying to keep the signal strong, and finally they snapped back into place. Echo turned to look at Aria. "We've got some broken coordinates. Venus, northern hemisphere. Ishtar region." Both Whip and Seraph nodded to confirm what Echo had said. Matt's face had a pondering look to it. "Alright, well we're in no condition to leave right now." He was right, the thrip wore plainclothes in place of their armor, just regular clothes in the form of pants and a sweatshirt for Matt, her blue coat and comfortable shorts for Aria, and a light jacket and boots for Ash that she wore over her black undersuit. "Let's finish eating first, and then we can discuss what to do back at the tower."

"Alright, sounds like a plan." All in agreement, they exited the alleyway and walked back into the restaurant to finish their meal, and think about the strange voice and its message.

* * *

 

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Ash looked at Matt with an expectant face, his position as leader of their team having finally been established between the three of them. They sat on Matt's bed, discussing what to do about the stranger's request. Matt held his chin thoughtfully. "Well, so far she appears to be on our side, whoever it is. It could be a ruse, though." He looked at his companions. "I'd suggest that we keep this between us. No need to get the Vanguards or other Guardians involved in this if it does turn out to be a trap. That way, we only put ourselves at risk." Aria and Ash both nodded. It sounded like a good plan.

"I'll have Echo tell Amanda Holliday to have the Javelin ready to depart early tomorrow morning in the hangar," said Aria, and she stood up from the bed to go, and walked to the exit of the room.

"I should leave as well, get my gear set up and all that," said Ash. She too stood up, and began to walk towards the door.

"Oh alright. Night Aria," said Matt from the bed. She nodded and opened the door. He turned his gaze to Ash and said, "And you too Ash. Sleep well." Ash gave a small smile, and waved back at Matt before following Aria into the hallway.

Once the door was closed, Aria rounded on Ash. "What the hell was that?" The Exo looked at her in surprise at the outburst. "What was what?" Ash's face appeared to be confused, but Aria could tell she was masking what Aria had thought she'd been trying to hide. "That! You two keep dancing around the other like magnets pushing against each other, taking one step forward and then immediately taking two steps back!" The Exo's face lost all expression at Aria's accusation, and she muttered, "It's complicated. Good night." Without another word, the Titan entered her own room and closed the door.

Aria shook her head. Both Ash and Matt were older than her by a few years, but they kept acting like children, avoiding discussion of anything to do with the touchy subject of feelings and affection, despite the obvious existence of such feelings on the sides of both parties. Echo appeared in front of her.

"Do you think they'll ever do anything about it? I mean, it's pretty clear that they've shown interest in each other." Aria entered her room, once again shaking her head. "I sure hope so Echo, but the way they keep shutting their mouths about it makes me think they might not just because they're too shy to discuss it." She started to undress, preparing for a good night's rest. "And they still thought that nobody had noticed yet?"

Aria nodded. "Apparently so. Which is ridiculous because of how touchy they get when they're out on dangerous missions, and then as soon as we're back here where they have ample opportunity to progress with their feelings, they just ignore it!" She gave a big huff of annoyance, frustrated that her friends were keeping themselves from being happy. She laid down on her bed, and tried to turn her mind to other things, like the stranger's request. Enemies they wouldn't believe, she'd said. Had she been talking about the Vex, the machine species that Zavala had spoken of with such obvious contempt? If she had been, then the Vex were starting to sound like the pure embodiment of evil from everything she'd heard so far.

Echo flew through off, presumably to talk to Amanda Holliday. She closed her eyes, shutting out her thoughts and distracting imaginations that kept her awake, and slept in preparation for the next day.

* * *

 

The Javelin slowly moved toward the opening of the hangar. A traffic control agent waved green lights in their direction, showing them that the way was clear. Pushing forward on the accelerator, the ship began to pick up speed and rushed through the exit, arcing up into the sky and away into space.

Ash began to input navigational data into the ship's onboard stellar maps. The destination appeared as a spot on Venus, approximately in the area of where the Ghosts had said the signal had originated from. Once she'd selected it, she sat back in her seat as the Javelin began to enter warp-space. Aria watched Ash turn to face her and Matt. "Alright, trip looks like its going to take about twenty minutes. That gives us some time to talk."

Aria wanted to smack her across the Exo's jaw, hoping to knock some sense into her and force her to talk about the potential between her and Matt. But she kept her frustration under lock and key, and instead asked, "Do you think it could be the Diplomat, or the Messenger contacting us? Whatever you want to call them." Matt shook his head. "No, I don't think so. By now, I'm sure that whoever the Messenger is, they know that we're looking for them. Why give us a perfect opportunity to take them out? This has got to be related to something else." Aria thought that Matt's reasoning made sense to a degree, but it still didn't keep her from being uneasy about a potential ambush.

"Maybe whoever this person is, they'll give us some new info about the Messenger anyway. They could be on our side, after all." Ash looked at Aria and Matt, awaiting their responses. Aria judged hers carefully. "Well, considering that we directly asked the Fallen about them, it's not a huge leap to imagine that our quest has gone unheard, like Matt said. You could be right." Ash nodded in appreciation of Aria's reply, as did Matt to show that he agreed with her.

The rest of the journey passed with them discussing all the potential possibilities that could happen during their meeting with the mysterious stranger, until a light began to blink on the console, and Ash moved to look at the map. "We're here," she said, and tapped a few commands into the ship's drive, taking them out of warp-space. Venus appeared on the viewport, slightly smaller than Earth and greenish yellow. Ash took the controls, and the Javelin began it's descent into the atmosphere of the planet, now in enemy territory.

* * *

 

Aria waded through the thigh-deep water. The space underneath the Ishtar Academy's collapsed building was flooded with water, and the ground felt marshy. Occasionally, patches of dirt rose above the surface, with the glowing blue lights of the native spirit bloom plant sometimes growing from the soil. Matt and Aria walked ahead of her, each of them attempting to wade through the building to reach the courtyard of the entrance to the academy. Inside was the origin of the transmission, and they were looking forward to finally getting some answers for why they'd been dragged out here. What did the stranger want them to see? Why did they even care about the trio's mission? These questions danced around Aria's mind as she tried to make sense of it all.

Finally, the reached a crumbling incline, a section of the building that had fallen down. Climbing it, they found themselves in what appeared to be a deteriorating combination of dormitory and library. On the second floor levels to the left stood shelves of books, lined against the wall. On the right were rooms that presumably led deeper into the academy. In front of them and up on one of the levels of stairs that they began to ascend was a large statue of the Goddess Venus. The obvious mascot for the planet was not very subtle, thought Aria, and she giggled slightly at the thought of Venus representing Venus.

A white spire-like structure stood near the statue, composed of glowing lines and dots. "A conflux!" Aria heard Whip exclaim from in front of her. "Let me see if I can access it, it may give us some new data!" Ash turned to her Ghost and asked, "What the hell is a conflux?"

"Just because you don't remember a decade ago, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. Confluxes were stations of the Vex, usually used for storing information or anchoring a teleportation point." Matt looked at Ash and nodded, and with a gesture of her hand, Whip flew over to analyze the conflux.

He scanned it as the three Guardians stood behind him a few feet, watching his progress. Suddenly, he stopped. "Well, that's weird. I'm not getting any data or records from the conflux at all. The only reason that could be is because-"

"It's a teleportation anchor," finished Aria, and clouds of dust and smoke began to appear all around them, lights flashing out from the shadows as robotic beings began to appear.

"No, no, no! Find some cover!" yelled Whip, and the trio scattered. Aria concentrated on propelling herself through the air, and hovered up to the second level balcony. Once there, she pulled herself over the railing, and ducked behind a table as red beams of light shot after her retreating form. The fire ceased, and began to focus on a different area, presumably at one of her friends. She took the opportunity to look out from cover, and get a thorough view of the Vex.

They were mostly one type of form, with an overlarge head that almost looked like a shield, and a white center in their abdomens. They each had a singular glowing red pupil, which gave them a malevolent appearance, forever scowling at their enemies with hatred in their eyes. Some of the other ones had horn-like protrusions, and a tail that whipped behind from a cable, giving them a devil-like cosmetic feel. She could hear Whip through the comm chatter saying, "The normal looking ones are called Goblins, and the ones with horns are Hobgoblins! Make sure to take out those Hobgoblins in a few shots, or they'll enter a stasis mode where you can't damage them!"

Aria pulled out her pulse rifle, and began firing at the enemies below. She managed to knock one's head off, but it continued to fire as it ran around without visual sensors, looking much like a headless chicken spraying blood everywhere as it ran around the yard. On a whim, she fired into the white center of its torso, and within two squeezes of the trigger, the Vex fell.

"Aim for their centers, it's a weak spot!" she yelled, hoping her team members could hear her. Apparently they could, and she watched as several rounds from both Matt and Ash's weapons found their targets, punching through the Vex's internal systems and crushing their wiring inside. Some of the Hobgoblins entered the stasis mode that Whip had talked about, but they were quickly dispatched once their protection lifted.

Even as some of the many enemies fell victim to the three Guardian's concentrated fire, more smoky lights began to flash, and two monstrous fifteen foot tall machines appeared in the center of the cloud. "Minotaurs!" Whip cried out, and Aria could tell from his tone of voice that these guys were bad news. As she watched, she saw them begin to make their way towards the back of the room, cornering Matt and Ash. Knowing she had to defend her friends, she hurled herself over the railing and landed on the ground below, standing her ground against the two gigantic robots.

"Get out of there Aria!" she heard Ash yell from behind her, but there was no turning back from her course of action now. She began to fire off rounds at their bodies, but the bullets simply clanged against the metal and ricocheted off. Trying for a different approach, she began to summon her light, and threw solidified shards of void energy. The void projectiles definitely dealt more damage, but it wasn't enough. She could feel her energy draining from her, and she didn't think she could last much longer as the Minotaurs continued to advance upon her position.

Suddenly, she felt her strength returning to her, and saw that instead of purple void projectiles, she was now hurling miniature fire-balls at the Minotaurs. She stopped launching them, and stared at her hands, now emitting a soft orange glow, as heat radiated from them. But she didn't have long to understand what that meant.

She heard the squeals and screeches of the metal monstrosities right above her. She looked upward just in time to see the closer one swing its leg back, and bring it forward to deliver a kick which caught her directly in the chest, with its foot hooking her between her legs. It shattered every bone in Aria's body, turning her organs and brains to mush. She had but only a second to see it coming before the flash of pain registered, and darkness closed in around her, taking her to oblivion.

…

Or was it?

She couldn't see anything, but she could definitely use her mind and thought processes as normal. The pain had disappeared as fast as it had come. In fact, she could not feel her body at all, and she began to panic. Just what the hell was happening? She needed to get back to her friends, back to defending them from the Vex-

A spark ignited, in the darkness, visible for a second before disappearing. What was that? It had appeared once she'd thought of returning to Matt and Aria-

Another spark, this one a little bit stronger than the first. Realizing what she needed to do, she began to concentrate on going back to the world of the living, and more sparks began to appear. Suddenly they ignited into a flame, a burning light that shined in the darkness. Then she realized, that there was no flame, she  _was_  the flame, and she looked down to see her body once again, engulfed in warm, powerful fire. She stood exactly where she'd been killed, just a moment before. Turning, she saw the Minotaurs were nearly upon Matt and Ash, and her friends had stopped firing in their own defense to stare at Aria, their mouths agape. Wasting no time, Aria sprinted towards the towering machines, and began to shoot jets of fire out from her hands. The Minotaurs realized too late that they were burning, and as they turned to face Aria, their internal functions began to fail, with glass protectors melting from the temperature, and their wiring incinerating with every passing second. Within just a few seconds, the machines of death fell to the ground, their bodies swallowed up by flame, and their joints smoking.

The fire surrounding Aria disappeared, as did the feeling of immortality that she'd experienced. Her exhaustion and pain in her body returned to her, and she nearly collapsed from the shocking transition. But it felt good. Pain meant she wasn't dead, and that was one outcome that she would prefer to avoid at all costs.

Matt and Ash ran up to her and grabbed her shoulders, to make sure she was real. "How- how are you here? We saw you die!" Ash's voice sounded high pitched and choking, as though she were holding back tears. "We thought we'd lost you," said Matt, echoing Ash's sentiments. "Hell, I saw you take that punch, and your body flew across the room, snapping against the wall. I knew you hadn't survived, and yet, I still held out hope." He too sounded as though he were pushing past a lump in his throat. Aria began to explain.

"Sunsingers. I guess I managed to unlock my ability as a Sunsinger, as well as a Voidwalker. We have the power as Warlocks to revive ourselves, to raise ourselves from the dead, like our Ghosts can." She pointed at Whip. "It just takes a bit more out of us than it does for them," she said with a slight laugh. Matt and Ash laughed too, but not out of humor; they did it out of relief that their friend wasn't dead, and that they'd all managed to come through the Vex's attack.

"Indeed. You fought well, young one." All three Guardians ceased their small celebration, and turned to see their unannounced guest walk up the stairs. "You!" accused Matt. "You nearly got us killed!"

"That was never my intention," she said in reply, and she turned to face Aria. "I only wanted to expose you to the Vex. Luckily, you all are made of sterner stuff than even I'd thought, and you managed to overcome them, even through death. Well done." Recognition clicked in Aria's mind, and she knew who the stranger was.

"You're that Exo from the moon. The one that gave us the dead Ghost." The stranger's white metallic face nodded, confirming Aria's statement. "Back then, I had no idea that your paths would intersect with mine." She turned to the group at large. "Yet, here we are."

"Why did you give us that Ghost? You could have taken it, and nobody would be the wiser. Why help us?" The Exo stranger turned to Matt, and said, "You mistake me for being an ally of the Darkness. I meant no harm, and once someone who had use for it came along, I entrusted you with it, believing it would be in good hands. My instincts were proven right, apparently. I dug that Ghost out of the clutches of the Hive. I'd watched its Guardian die protecting it, and I made sure that the Ghost would not be left to rot in the pits of the Hellmouth." She finished and put her hands on her hips. "Now, we have more urgent matters to discuss."

Crossing their arms, each of the three Guardians waited for what the mysterious Hunter-dressed stranger had to say. "As I understand it Guardians, you three seek to defend the Traveler and the last remnants of humanity from the Darkness, even at the expense of your own lives. It's a brave notion, but without being properly informed of what's truly happening, your efforts are in vain." She gave her speech with a tone of educating an ignorant child. "The Traveler is not simply dormant, it is dying."

"The Darkness is cunning, and though the City itself may not have yet noticed, the Traveler exists only in a vegetative state, and not as a sentient being. At least, no longer. Toward the end of the Collapse, the Traveler's Spark, its heart which gives it life and is the origin of all its light, was stolen from it. Without it, the Traveler cannot produce light, only supply it to Guardians from its initial stored amount from when the Spark was stolen. It's been nearly two centuries since the Collapse's end, and the Traveler's light is nearly gone." All three Guardians listened in silence, as they absorbed this wealth of information. She continued in her exposition. "The Traveler's Spark was hidden away by the Vex, and now lies in the center of one of their vast machine prisons, located on Mercury. It is guarded by thousands of the vile abominations, and any attempt to retrieve the Spark would almost certainly mean death."

"In addition to that, there is another ritual taking place that carries out the second stage of the Darkness's scheme. Do you know of the Black Garden?" Aria had no idea what that was, but Whip piped up and said, "We've heard the legends. What about it?" The Exo walked away a few feet, and gazed at the smoking corpses of the Minotaurs. "One of the greatest threats to the Traveler lies there, where a ritual performed inside it drains the traveler of what little light it has left. Soon, not only will your Traveler not be able to produce any light, but it will have no light left at all, if the ritual in the Black Garden is allowed to continue." She turned back to face them again. "Then, the third stage of the Darkness's plan will fall into place."

"And that is?" Aria found herself asking. The Exo looked directly at her, and spoke her next words with an urgency in her tone; "Once the Traveler's light is drained, and it is vulnerable, then the armies of the Darkness will converge on your City, burning anything that stands in their way, until they reach the Traveler and destroy it from the inside, preventing it from ever spreading its light again." She knew that the Exo wasn't messing around, and that for whatever reason, she'd decided to trust their team of Guardians with this precious information.

Ash tried a question as well. "Do you know about the Messenger? Or the Diplomat?"

The Exo's gaze lingered over Ash a moment before saying, "I am indeed aware of a certain individual who speaks for the Darkness, giving out commands to its armies. To some, like the Hive, he is the Messenger. To the Cabal, he is known as an Ambassador. The Vex have no name, as they see him not as a separate entity, but as an extension of the Darkness itself. I'm sure that in due time, if you wait long enough, he will find you before you find him. One thing is certain, he must be eliminated." Aria made note of the 'he' pronoun, before Matt asked her for yet another confusing answer.

"Why don't you just tell this all to the Vanguards, Hunter? Why lead us this wild chase to find you?" Matt's question hung in the air for a moment, before the stranger replied; "One doesn't have to be forged in light to use the same abilities that the Traveler possesses. There are other sources, other…" She paused. "Other sides."

"You're not a Guardian? Why wear that Hunter armor then?" "While I may not be a Guardian, I still have the same abilities as yourself, Hunter. I simply came about my path in a different beginning. Perhaps I fought for a side too long before realizing I was on the wrong one." At this, she glanced over at Ash, who was listening closely.

Something flickered in the stranger's face when she looked at Ash. What was it that Aria saw? Was it recognition, familiarity?

In a flash, the flicker had passed, and the Exo's features returned to normal. "In any matter, your first priority should now be to find the Black Garden. Rip out its heart, and only then will your Traveler's light cease to drain. It will not replenish itself, however, until the Spark has been freed from its prison and returned to the Traveler. Hurry, lest you run out of time before the Darkness's armies take advantage of the City's small defenses, and invade." She began to walk away, before turning around and asking a question to Ash; "What is your name, Titan?"

"Me? My name is Ash," she replied, confused at the sudden interview. Aria now knew something was up, and asked, "Why? Do you know her?"

The stranger hesitated only a moment, before replying, "Do I know Ash? No, I don't know her." She placed more weight on Ash's name, as though she specifically spoke in reference to the person associated with that name, and that name alone.

Then she walked down the steps as blue lights danced around her retreating form, signaling a transmat. Within a moment, she was gone.

Aria turned to her friends. "Did you guys pick up on that? The 'Ash' emphasis?" Matt nodded. "Yeah, it's like she was speaking about Ash, but in an odd way, like she was two different people." He turned to the Titan next to him. "Do you think she knows you from before your memory loss?"

Ash pondered only a moment before saying, "It doesn't matter. Like she said, our goal should be to find, and destroy the Black Garden's heart. That's the immediate threat. Once everything is said and done, we can worry about my past." Aria thought it was brave of Ash to possibly forego a potential lead on her previous life in order to protect the Traveler and the City. It was an admirable sacrifice that the female Exo was paying.

Matt began to count their objectives; "Alright, one; we need to find and destroy the Black Garden. Two, we need to defend the Traveler and the City from the possible invasion of the Darkness. And if at all possible, we need to somehow get the Spark of the Traveler back." Whip turned to face him. "If we're going to find the Black Garden, we need to see the Awoken. They keep track of nearly everything going on in the inner planets. It's one of the ways they've managed to survive for so long by themselves, making sure that they know what their potential enemies are up to." The Hunter nodded, and turned to Aria.

"I know that the Reef-born Awoken are suspicious of all outsiders, including Earth-born Awoken. But they'll still be more likely to talk to you then someone not even of their race, like me or Ash. Could you perhaps act as a middle ground for us? It'd be a lot safer of a bet then us all going together." Though Aria knew that he was right, the thought of being alone among her cousins who wouldn't hesitate to kill her should she give them an opportunity, was frightening. But someone had to do it, and she was best suited to fulfill that duty. "Of course."

He turned to Ash, and said, "We'll have to hang back on the Javelin as she and Echo talk to them. We can come in and support her if things get hairy." Ash acknowledged the plan, and Matt looked at both of them, speaking as a group. "I'd say that we need to get this done as fast as possible. No time to head back to the tower and relax, our new Exo friend was pretty clear that this is all happening soon. The Messenger, or whoever he is, is about to try and wipe humanity from existence unless we stop him. We need to start ending this chain of events  _now._ " The trio of friends was silent a moment, as they all began to accept their current course of action. Matt gave the team one last look around their faces.

"Alright, let's go have a chat with the Awoken."


	8. Eye of the Storm

Purple streaks of stardust and interstellar particles flew by the cockpit of the Javelin. There were even times when the ship passed right through a large cloud of them, resulting in a mass impact of thousands of tiny, sparkling particles to drag along the windows, opening a space for the ship as it took up volume in their usually untouched area of space.

Aria's heart was racing. She now faced one of the most dangerous tasks she'd been prevented with; having a conversation. It seemed easy enough to simply say it, but to think about the consequences of what would happen to her if she wasn't careful overwhelmed her mind with fear. Plus, the Awoken rarely showed any kind of empathy towards anyone outside of their unique civilization. The only thing she had going for her was the fact that she was also a member of the Awoken, but being Earth-born, she wasn't sure if that would be enough to calm the elitist mentality within the Queen and her people.

Matt turned in his co-pilot seat to face her. "Remember, that button Echo gave you is pinned on your collar. If you're in trouble, just casually reach up to your neck, and press it. We'll come in and get you out." She nodded. Though he'd told her this already a number of times, she appreciated him simply trying to ensure her safety against all odds. "You ready for this?" She wanted to say no, to say anything that would procrastinate the inevitable, but she knew that this needed to be done. She nodded again.

All she could do was go along with the plan. Both Matt and Ash had accomplished great things, had been given the Traveler's blessing of being given a second life, but she felt inadequate next to them, as though they outshone her every feat. This was one of the few things that only she could do, and she was determined to prove her worth to them.

Matt turned back to face the viewport just as they passed through a large purple cloud of dust, and upon emerging on the other side, a small intake of breath could be heard from all three of the Javelin's occupants.

Enormous colony ships, meant to transfer tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people, floated carelessly through the void, inactive and devoid of life. Some had been split in half, while others remained intact though the external damage only hinted at how much wreckage lay inside them. As though reading their mind, Seraph appeared and said, "Every ship that could escape, fled Earth during the Collapse. They made it this far, but I guess most of them died out here." Aria stared out the windows and uttered, "It's a graveyard."

Ash tried to change the depressing subject, and asked, "How did the Awoken survive out here?" "No one knows," said Seraph in reply. They continued on until Ash looked over at a beeping noise that began to emit from the console. "What the- we've got two ships following us, around a hundred and fifty meters behind!" As if on cue, a voice came through and started to speak over the comms;  _"Intruder bearing 127, you have crossed into the realm of the awoken. State your business or be fired on by order of the Queen."_ Ash turned to Seraph, waiting for the Ghost to respond to the hail. "Don't look at me!" said the young Ghost, "You better say something!"

Ash undid her harness, and walked the view steps over to the console of the ship, between Ash and Matt. "My name is Aria Sorentine. I am an Awoken Guardian from Earth." She added a subtle emphasis on 'Awoken'. "I've come to seek counsel from the inhabitants of the Reef."

Several moments of silence passed, and the trio of Guardians held their breath in apprehension. Finally, the voice came back stating,  _"Conform to my trajectory. Any deviation will be taken as an act of aggression."_

Collectively, the three of them exhaled. Turning back to face Aria, Ash had a slight smile on her face as she said, "Looks like we're in the right place." Seraph only shook her body and asked, "Why is the right place so terrifying?"

"Because our job mostly consists of eliminating scary, evil aliens so that they don't destroy life as we know it." Matt faced Seraph, challenging her to continue the unintentional debate. She just narrowed her eye, and dematerialized.

The Javelin continued to fly according the the requirements of the sentry's orders, as they descended deeper into the web of the Reef.

* * *

 

Aria walked down a long catwalk, Reef Paladins behind, and to either side of her. They escorted her down the long platform suspended in the air, stationed high above the ground of the vast cylindrical chamber that was the Queen's throne room. Orange lanterns lit the way, illuminating her face with a soft, flame-like glow. Finally, they reached the end of the bridge, which opened up into a circular staircase that rose up to a platform containing a large, velvet-cushioned throne. Standing next to it was an Awoken male, his long black hair hanging down the right side of his face. She assumed he was the Prince. He greeted them with an icy stare, as though their very presence was disgusting to him.

"So," he called, "these are the trespassers demanding an audience?" Echo at her side looked up apologetically. "We didn't mean to trespass." The Prince gave a small huff, and replied, "The Queen herself judges who may, or may not enter the realm." He began to descend the small set of stairs, continuing as he did so, "Me? I see no reason why she should be available for whatever washes up at the reef." He made it to the same level as Aria, and again gave her that cold, displeased glare. "But here we are."

Aria noticed that he wore Hunter clothing, but was obviously not a Hunter. She tried not to think about how he'd gotten his hands on that armor, and instead attempted to sound as sure of herself as she could before starting her side of the negotiations. Her mind thought back to her first meeting with the Vanguard's, and Ikora Rey's lesson in confidence asking,  _Are those statement, or questions, young one?_

She drew her breath. "I've come to ask for help." Before she could even get her next sentence out, however, a pair of familiar looking hands grabbed the side of the throne and pulled the creature they were connected to into view.

"Fallen!" yelled Echo. Aria reacted instinctively, and turned to a Paladin beside her. She reached into the holster of the guard, and grabbed the sidearm inside. She began to bring it back again, intending to open fire on the Vandals which were -

A knife appeared at her throat. She froze, and looked to see the Prince holding it, his eyes practically begging her to give him a reason. She held completely still, refusing to give him one. Though whether her lack of movement was purposeful, or from being petrified in fear, she had no clue. Echo looked on at the spectacle, helpless.

"It is afraid of the Fallen." Suddenly, a beautiful Awoken woman with blonde hair walked up to the throne from behind it. She gave Aria a look over, as though analyzing her for weaknesses to exploit. "It does not understand that these ones are mine." As she sat down, the Fallen Vandals who had remained in defensive positions, now left their alert stances and appeared to be waiting for commands.

The Paladin walked over to Aria, and jerked the sidearm back from her. Once she was unarmed, the Prince removed his knife grudgingly, as though he were reluctant to allow the Guardian to live. He turned to the woman on the throne. "Apologies, your Grace." She looked up at the Queen who appeared to be bored, waiting for Aria to speak. She swallowed.

This is where it was going to be difficult.

* * *

 

Ash sighed, and leaned against the back of her chair. She and Matt sat here in the ship, waiting for Aria to return. Both of their helmets were off, as they'd tried to get some fresh air flowing around their heads. Being stuck in a helmet all day wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world.

Matt hadn't spoken a word since the Warlock had left, and Ash wasn't trying to make conversation either. What the hell would she even say? Words never came elegantly out of her mouth, the way Aria's did. Her own vocabulary usually consisted of loud expletives on the battlefield. She had no clue how to phrase anything that she wanted to talk about with Matt, and without knowing how, she kept her mouth shut. Little did she know Matt was thinking the same thing.

As he waited for any sign of trouble, Matt thought about Ash and what to do. He could see the signs of interest there, but he hadn't ever had a real opportunity to talk about it with her. And now, alone and able to talk about anything away from watchful eyes, he was silent. He felt like an idiot just sitting here, but he had no idea how to bring up a topic of discussion like that. Besides, he'd only known her for just over a month now. Who the hell was he to say that he knew what she was thinking? He could be reading signs wrong, for all his knowledge of Exo emotions was worth.

"So," said Ash, surprising Matt. Usually he was the one to break the silence. This was throwing everything he'd just thought about into the trash. "I'd like to think that we've had a good second life, so far." She turned to face him. "I know that our friendship's beginning was… odd, to say the least." She smiled. "But I think it's worked out so far, don't you?" She waited expectantly for his answer. He swallowed hard, and tried to answer.

"Oh, of course! I mean, I'm sure that my whole life would have been a whole lot duller without purpose, and I think that fighting for humanity's survival definitely fulfills that quota." He gave her an awkward grin. She pressed on, a frustrated look on her face. "What about Aria? What about… me?"

"You guys are two of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting in my two lives, that's for sure. No doubt about that." His constant side-stepping was going to get him nowhere, and he damn well knew it. That thought was only confirmed when he saw Ash look away, disappointed at his loophole answer. She couldn't have possibly known it, but just that sad expression on her face pained him more than any kind of weaponry ever had. He wanted there to be two of him just so that he could hit himself over the head with a brick, hoping to knock some sense into his brain.

Ah, to hell with it.

"Ash?" She turned to look at him again, questioningly. Her electric blue eyes shone at him, beautiful as always. But there was a resigned tone in her features as well, exasperated to be waiting so long on each other to make a move. That ended now.

"Look," he began, struggling to get the words out, "I can't say that I understand feelings. I can't say for certain why I feel the way I do, or what draws me to you, and to be honest I probably won't ever have an explanation for it anywhere in the near future." Her mouth was slightly agape, surprised that he was finally admitting it. "Back in the Hellmouth, all I could think about was getting you and Aria to safety. I don't think I quite got it at the time, but when you thanked me that night, it clicked for me. I wanted to escape so badly, to save you so much because I didn't want it to stop. I didn't want our friendship, our future to end." He looked away for a moment, trying to keep his composure and not look like a fool.

"I know that we're in the middle of a war here, and kind of tracking a lead that could help us save humanity… come to think of it, whatever I have to say probably sounds small in comparison, but I don't care." He reached his hand over to her, and grabbed hers in his own. It was gloved like his, but he hoped she could feel the warmth of his through the material. "I don't know if something like this would even work out, but I'd love to give being together with you a shot." He glanced back over to her, only to see her smiling at him, with sheer joy etched upon her features.

"Stole the words right out of my mouth," she said, still grinning. She leaned forward in her seat, and he reciprocated. Meeting in the middle, they hugged each other in a warm embrace, each of them simply enjoying the moment and one another's company.

"It's about damn time!" Both Seraph and Whip materialized, looking down at the two Guardians. Whip turned to Seraph and said, "You wouldn't believe how long I've been talking to her about trying to bring this up with him! How much more obvious could they get?" Seraph nodded vigorously. "I know! The way those two danced around the problem made me want to smack them in the head!"

"Hey!" Ash and Matt had let go, and now stared accusingly at their Ghosts. "You wanna keep that crap to yourselves?" Ash gave Whip a hard stare, trying to shut him up, and failing as usual. "Oh, so we can keep our thoughts bottled inside us for knows how long like you two?"

Ash leaned back in her seat, an embarrassed look on her face. Matt also felt sheepish, but that didn't stop him from holding Ash's hand in the ensuing silence of the ship as both of them smiled from the other's touch.

* * *

 

"I am a Guardian, from Earth. We're looking for the location of the Black Garden." The Prince, who had been walking away, sharply turned back to face Aria. "Why?" "We seek to end a ritual of the Darkness, draining the Traveler of its light," she responded. His eyes widened for a moment, before reverting back to a disappointed, but unsurprised look. "You want to turn it into a battleground? How unimaginative!"

"Do you know where it is?" She asked, pushing forward to find answers. "Everyone knows where it is!" he snapped. "The hard part is getting in."

She tried again. "Can you help us?"

He began to get very close to her, and his voice was low as he spoke, menacing; "And why would we do that?" Spit flew from his mouth in obvious distaste. Her hand was slowing inching towards the button on her collar before the Queen called out, "The Queen requests counsel with her brother."

With an expression that said,  _this isn't over,_  he spun around to walk back towards his sister, the Queen. He knelt down beside her, and she whispered commands into his ear. Aria couldn't even hope to imagine what they were, aside from praying that they hadn't decided to execute her.

The Prince stood up muttering, "That's good." She feared whatever the Queen had said to make him happy, but her worried were cast aside as he turned and said, "Why not? We'll make you a key! How's that?" She was about to accept gratefully before he continued, "All we need is the head of a Vex Gate Lord."

"A Gate Lord?" asked Echo in shock. He turned to face her. "Uh, w- we-" She interrupted him, "Why do you want a Vex head?" She was curious as to the possible motivation behind such an odd trophy.

"Oh, we don't," the Prince replied in a snide manner, "and I doubt we'll get one either. But it's your only hope of getting into the Black Garden."

With determination in her voice, she said loudly, "I will return." Hopefully the Queen had heard her, and knew that the Guardian meant it.

The Prince either didn't notice, or chose to ignore it, and quipped, "Or die on Venus. Either way." He scowled at her, signaling that it was time for her to go. With an outward appearance of cool composure, but shaking like a leaf within, she turned and began to head back towards the docking bay where Ash and Matt were waiting.

* * *

 

"Seriously?!" Ash's eyes shot open. She looked over to the entrance of the ship where Aria had just entered, and now appeared to be incredibly exasperated. She followed Aria's gaze to her and Matt's intertwined hands, and suddenly understood why the young girl was so frustrated.

"It took you forever to finally do it, but you guys talk about your feelings, and I MISS it?!" Aria practically shouted the words, and Ash could tell that the Warlock was somewhat exaggerating for comedic effect. She and Matt had evidently fallen asleep while waiting for Aria to finish negotiations. Though she felt a bit awkward for Aria having discovered them in this fashion, she couldn't help but laugh a little bit, and turning she saw Matt doing the same thing. She faced their friend, and tried to change the subject.

"So, what'd you find out?" Aria narrowed her eyes at the obvious diversion, but replied anyway. "They said that we need the head of a Vex Gate Lord. As for why, I have no idea."

"A Vex Gate Lord?" asked Whip in surprise. "Well, that's going to be quite the enemy to take out." Matt turned to Seraph. "Can you find us a Gate Lord?" She nodded. "Next stop, Venus!" A navigational map pinged on the console, and Ash took hold of the controls, lifting off from the floor of the docking bay, and slowly backing out into the void of space. Once they'd exited, however, she let go once more.

"You're not going to pilot this trip?" asked Whip. She shook her head. "My hands are somewhat preoccupied," she responded, and smiled as she once again felt Matt's hands grasp her own.

* * *

 

The trio walked through the swampy marshes of Venus. Several times, they passed by blocky looking structures, which the Ghosts had said were ruins of the Vex older than humanity itself. Bits of the hills and mountains were also transformed from once green and living grass to machine, lights pulsing along them. As humanity had left Venus to the machine race, the Vex's terraforming went unhindered, and it wasn't bad motivation to stop them so that the garden planet could possibly be returned to its luscious state.

They'd gone to ground a while back, and followed a trail of Vex signatures that Seraph had picked up. Apparently, the Gate Lord was kept in stasis until woken by more Vex or an intruder. They guarded the time gates that the Vex used to move through, in, and out of time. And they were about to challenge one head on. Matt couldn't see how this was going to help them reach the Black Garden, but he wasn't going to say no and risk losing the Traveler simply because it didn't make sense to him.

Eventually, they reached a large open area. Vex swarmed the hillsides and a massive circular ring stood vertically at the top of a long stone path of stairs. Blocks of stone stood everywhere, as though they grew out of the ground. It looked like some abstract artist had taken tile art to a whole new level.

"Where are we?" asked Matt. "The 'Endless Steppes'. According to records I've accessed from the City, the last sighting of a Gate Lord was here at this particular time gate. It's up to you to lure it out." Seraph said 'up to you' as though she were absolving herself of all responsibility of anything that may happen next. He didn't like that, or what it implied about the Gate Lord's durability.

"Are we ready?" The question came from Ash who was looking at him and Aria expectantly. Both of them nodded. "Let's do this," muttered Matt.

They began to engage the Vex guarding the time gate. Though the numbers were staggeringly against them, the Guardians had the element of surprise, and within ten minutes, they were walking over the broken and destroyed bodies of various Goblins and Hobgoblins. There even lay a Minotaur or two nearby, a testament to their fighting prowess.

Another ring was stationed in front of the enormous one, but instead of being placed upright, this one was flat on the ground. "That's how you're going to summon it. I hope you're ready." Seraph sure didn't sound ready, but what could Matt do? This was the only course of action they could take.

Stepping inside the ring, he watched as white cubic lights began to rise from the edges of the ring. They formed a white wall of light around three feet high, each square constantly fading in and out. Once the wall had reached its maximum height and was completed, the larger ring standing upright began to activate, and a swirling mass of light and particles began to emit from it. Matt began to step back from the ring, whatever he'd set in motion was already done, and there was no reason for him to be standing so close when-

Then the Gate Lord appeared. Three stories tall, it looked like a Minotaur that had taken steroids far too long. It materialized through the time gate as segments and separated limbs, but once through, they all connected and formed the walking death machine. It stood upright, and turned its large red eye to face Matt, its summoner. A series of squeals emitted from it, and he knew what it was thinking.

"Move!" he yelled, and he dodged out of the way as a large purple projectile shot from the Gate Lord's arm and splashed around where Matt had been standing just a moment before. Ash and Aria had taken defensive positions behind a row of blocks, and were firing in bursts at the Gate Lord's white center of its torso. It turned its attention to the puny threats that dared to shoot at it, at fired off a few cannon rounds. The two women were forced to evacuate cover immediately as the large explosions practically melted the blocks, as it would have their bodies had they stayed.

Matt unslung his sniper, and aimed for the white center. He got a few rounds off before it noticed him, and though it had probably done more damage than his hand cannon, it still hadn't made a dent in the thing. He rolled away to avoid splash damage from a nearby explosion, and called out to his team mates; "We need a lot more power going into this thing than our weapons! We need to super up!"

He began to sprint towards a spot around fifty feet in front of the Gate Lord, and hoped they'd heard him. Evidently they had, because they too ran to meet him at the same location. They turned to face the Gate Lord, and began to summon what light they had. Matt's hands and body began to radiate heat, and Aria's hands began to emit a purple aura of Void energy. They continued to charge, but it was too late.

The Gate Lord had seen them run into an easily attackable position, and fired no less than five rounds directly at them. Splashing on the ground and around them, they cause so much damage to the area that the stone ground caught fire from the Vex's technological cannon rounds, and smoke billowed into the air. It was sure that the insignificant life forms had been neutralized. But it hadn't waited until the smoke cleared.

The smog began to part in the wind, and standing in the center of the cloud were the three Guardians, protected by a purple bubble-like shield. The Gate Lord's weaponry hadn't even scratched the surface. It stood shocked for a moment, giving Matt enough time to yell, "NOW!" and jump into the air with his now golden hand cannon. He fired three shots of pure solar energy into the Gate Lord's center. The damage level was severe, and it knelt down, attempting to recover. It never had the chance to, as Aria floated up and hurled her Nova Bomb directly into the mass of the Gate Lord, completely obliterating its body structure. Its body exploded into several pieces, including its head.

The cranium of the Gate Lord flew up in the air, and landed, smoking, at their feet. Damaged, but mostly intact. Seraph flew over, and dematerialized it, storing it for later. "Well done, you three. You managed to kill a Gate Lord, one of the most infamous foes humanity has ever had to face in this war."

Matt and Aria panted, trying to force air into their lungs from their quick use of their supers. Ash had already collapsed on the ground. Though her Ward of Dawn was impenetrable, all the damage inflicted upon it sapped her of her strength the longer she'd kept it up, and five shots from the Gate Lord's cannon had nearly caused her to pass out. She felt a shadow block out the light above her, and she reached her hand up to grab Matt's extended one, helping her to her feet. She tripped as she stood up, and fell into Matt's arms as he caught her. They locked gazes for an instant, each savoring the moment.

"I do hate to interrupt, but I'm afraid you can't leave quite yet."

The three Guardians turned to face the unknown voice. Standing roughly ten meters away from them, was a newcomer. They wore short Warlock robes, black with red highlights. They pointed their hand at Seraph, implying they wanted the head. "I'm going to have to take that. Can't have you three getting any closer to the Black Garden."

The voice was definitely male, though somewhat synthetic sounding. Matt narrowed his eyes, wondering. Steadying Ash on her own feet, he let go and faced the mysterious individual. "And why is that, Guardian?"

"Oh, well for starters, I'm not a Guardian. At least, not the kind of Guardian you are." The stranger took a few menacing steps towards them. "And second, because my master would become quite displeased if you three did manage to reach it."

Matt started reaching for his hand cannon. "You're the Messenger."

The stranger shrugged. "If you're talking to the Hive, then yes. Like I'm sure you've seen already, each army has their own name for me. I'm a Diplomat to the Fallen, an Ambassador to the Cabal." They began to pull a knife from a sheath on the left side of their waist, and a gun from a holster on the other side. It was a hand cannon, but it didn't look like any kind of hand cannon that Matt had ever seen. "To you? I could be your worst nightmare." Wicked edges and blades lined the exterior of the gun, as though it would hurt just to even pick it up. It could have been used as a secondary knife instead of a gun.

"Oh, you like this?" asked the Messenger, gesturing to the hand cannon. "It's got quite the bloody history behind it… going from hand to hand, each owner having killed the last. I am no exception. As the saying goes, "birds of a feather, flock together", and this gun is just as dark as I am. I like to think of it as a little 'Thorn' in the side of my enemies." He gave a short laugh. "And I'm sure that you'll all know how it feels in just a second. It was a pleasure while the adventure lasted, but unfortunately all good things must come to-"

Matt flipped his hand cannon out of its holster as the Messenger spoke, and immediately fired off several shots. The Messenger reacted with the agility of a cat, as though he'd been expecting him to shoot the whole time. He leaned out of the way, and began to shoot several rounds of the 'Thorn' in Matt's direction. He just barely evaded them, and watched as one of the rounds hit a chunk of the blocks behind them. Imbedded in the stone was a nearly four inch, pointed blade. It looked like the 'Thorn' literally shot thorns. He probably should have expected that.

As soon as Matt had fired, Aria and Ash had unleashed their own weaponry against the corrupted Warlock. The Messenger began to move his hands in front of him, faster than the eye could follow. Short trails of purple followed them, and he could see that the Messenger was literally deflecting bullets and casting them away with void energy. "How come you can't do that, Aria?" muttered Matt. She gave no answer, as she rolled to avoid a burst of purple that had threatened to explode in her face. Matt continued to fire at the Messenger, not hoping to hit him, but at least attempting to stall him from firing off that devastating Thorn again.

"Ash, keep firing! Wait until I get close!" "What?!" she called, but Matt was already moving. True to his command, she kept suppressing fire up long enough for Matt to reach the Messenger. Unfortunately, his actions hadn't gone unnoticed, and right as Ash stopped firing, the Warlock brought forward the knife that he'd equipped earlier.

Matt raised his left forearm to block the descending arm. Using his right fist, he threw a punch into the Messenger's stomach, hoping to stagger him. The Messenger, his right hand still trapped above Matt's forearm, now dropped the knife into his left hand waiting below, and swiped. The knife dragged across Matt's chest plate, and Matt used his right hand to grab the wrist of the Messenger's now knife wielding one. His attention distracted, Matt wasn't able to brace in time for the Messenger to swing his now unguarded arm directly into Matt's helmet. The Hunter flew back a few feet, but still managed to stay on his feet.

"Impressive." The Messenger crossed his arms, and stood at ease. "Your skills are clearly not exaggerated. I almost hate to kill you, but orders are orders." "In that case, you won't mind if we return the favor." Ash stood behind the Messenger, having looped around as he'd focused on Matt, while Aria kept her aim trained on him at all times. Her shotgun was aimed directly at the back of his head, and he knew it. He sighed. "Oh, come now. Surely even you know that this isn't an even fight."

Quick as a flash, he ducked and brought his arm behind him, knocking the barrel of Ash's gun aside. Continuing to turn, he brought his other hand forward and smashed it into the side of her helmet. The impact was so great that it shattered the visor, and as she flew backwards, bits and pieces of plexiglass landed all around her form.

Matt wanted to rush to Ash's side, but he had to focus on the task at hand. Aria opened fire as soon as she'd registered his movement, but his action had lasted less than a second before he'd begun to deflect the bullets as normal. Matt saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and had to focus to keep his gaze on the Messenger rather than checking on Ash, as he knew what was about to happen.

The Messenger looked bored deflecting bullets, until he heard a voice to his side yell, "Hey asshole!" Reacting out of instinct, he turned to face the noise, and Ash's arc powered fist met the front of his helmet, creating a miniature shockwave. The Messenger's punch may have hit Ash like a truck and crushed her visor, but her force slammed into him like a train, and completely destroyed the helmet. It flew off in pieces, and the Warlock tumbled backwards from the impact.

Now on his stomach, the Messenger looked up. It was a male Exo, and his face bore the same white and silver paint scheme that both Ash and the Exo stranger had as well. He looked up to see Ash standing a few feet from him, and his mouth dropped. Her visor was completely destroyed, and it allowed him to see her face properly.

"No… it can't be…?" he began. He didn't have a chance to get any other words out before a sniper round fired from Matt's rifle caught him in the torso and exited out his back, as the Messenger's guard had been temporarily lowered. The Messenger clutched at his chest, and cast a small void shield to his side, to prevent any other surprise attacks. Glaring at Matt from behind the shield, he spoke; "Though you may escape today, do not think that you are lucky enough to evade me forever. We'll meet again."

He faced Ash, and repeated, "We'll meet again," though this time with a somewhat softer tone. As soon as he'd finished, black and green light surrounded him, and he vanished in a flash of sickening colored light.

Matt walked over to Ash, Aria following behind. "You alright?" he asked tentatively. She turned to face him, surprise in her eyes.

"He… he recognized me, just like the Exo stranger did. And his face, and her face, they were both like mine!" She gave Matt an expression of helplessness and confusion. "How do they know me?! Why would I know either of them from before? I'm so lost!" Matt just reached out and pulled her into a hug, which she willingly accepted. "We'll get this sorted out, I promise you. Before this is all over, we'll solve this mystery."

He turned to Aria as Ash rested her head against his chest. "Hey, nice job with the Gate Lord. Without your Nova Bomb, I don't know how we could have gotten him down in time." He gave her a nod, and Aria felt her chest swell with pride, having finally done something to prove her worth. Regardless of how valuable it had actually been, his praise warmed her heart, and she was satisfied.

He turned back to Ash. "And your Ward of Dawn saved us. Not to mention that sweet knockout punch of yours. You practically knocked his head off!" Ash smiled a little, and he felt good for getting at least some kind of positive reaction.

"Alright, we've got the Gate Lord's head. Let's head back to the Awoken, and give them-" "Oh, I don't think so!" Seraph interrupted Matt with an authoritative tone. She flew closer towards him, and turned to his hand still holding Ash close to him. "We're not going anywhere until you three have gone back to the Tower. You all need to rest up, to relax for a bit."

"Seraph, you do realize that humanity's existence is at stake?" asked Matt, his helmet covering up his raised eyebrow and quizzical look he was giving her from behind it. "Yes, I'm fully aware, but one day isn't going to make it die any faster." Without another word, she looked up at the sound of the approaching Javelin, and dematerialized, presumably aboard. A moment later, the other three were teleported into their seats, and Whip began to fly them back towards Earth, not trusting Ash to keep them on said course.

* * *

 

After a lengthy debrief to the Vanguards for their extended absence, the trio had walked to their respective rooms. But Matt couldn't fall asleep. Tossing and turning, he tried to find some way to get comfortable and pass out, but his mind wouldn't stop processing information. Why did they need the Gate Lord head? Who was this Messenger Exo that had recognized Ash? For that matter, how did he even know her, or the other Exo female, the one dressed like a Hunter? Questions swam through his mind, and he just couldn't stop thinking of all the possibilities.

Suddenly, his door opened, though quietly. He turned to face the intruder, and saw none other than Ash walking towards him. She wore her black jumpsuit that she usually had on in place of clothes, and rubbed her hands together in a nervous kind of fashion.

"Hey, what's up?" asked Matt, wondering why she too was up so late. "Can't sleep?" She shook her head. "I have too many questions in my head for me to deactivate. I just needed to get my mind of things for awhile, I hope you don't mind." "No, not at all, and he sat up in bed. "I can't sleep either." He spoke in whispered tones, as to not wake Seraph. "All I can think about are possible connections between the Messenger and you. You two are so drastically different, I have no idea what you two could possibly have in common."

She just stared sadly at the bed, her past so close and yet so far to being discovered. He looked at her, and had an idea. "Hey, do you want to get out for a bit?" She looked at him curiously. "Out? Out where?" "Just to walk around a bit, maybe see some of the City. You up for it?" There was a moment's pause before she smiled and nodded. "Alright, go change, I'm going to grab some clothes."

* * *

 

Ash laughed playfully, and shoved Matt's shoulder away. They walked down a street of the City, him telling her stories of the twins. He now wore his blue sweatshirt and jeans, and she wore her jacket and boots. They'd been walking for nearly an hour now, and had yet to become bored of their conversation.

"So I hear this weird noise, and I head into the laundry room to find bubbles and soap coming out of every crack in the washing machine. The little twerps had overloaded the thing with cleaner, and the volume of the washer was too small for it to handle, so it just started seeping out the sides and floating as bubbles into the air!" He laughed at the memory. "I think I covered for them on that one, because they hadn't actually been trying to prank anyone, they'd just been trying to help, and got the amount of soap needed wrong."

"Your siblings sound like they were a lot of fun," reflected Ash. "Yeah, they could be. They could also be annoying little shit-stains, but the positives almost always outweighed the negatives with them." Matt stopped talking for a moment to just enjoy the silence. He looked in his peripheral vision to see Ash smiling and walking next to him.

He dropped his hand ti his side, and lifted it slightly to grab hers. She reciprocated, and gripped his hand as well. They walked down the street that night, hand in hand, as unbeknownst to them, a Hunter-dressed stranger stood on a rooftop, observing them, and smiled as she watched the two enjoy their night together.


	9. A Black Mirror

The Queen looked up in surprise at the sound of approaching footsteps. Aria continued to walk confidently towards the throne. Evidently the Prince at her side couldn't see the look of triumph on her face, and assumed that she'd failed.

"There's no shame in running away, Guardian. Aside from the cowardice and failure of it, it's an excellent strategy!" He smirked.

She locked gazes with him and said seriously, "I didn't run." The expression of alarm that crossed his face and wiped away his grin was enough to make Aria cheer. Luckily, she kept her composure.

"Was no Gate Lord slain, brother?" inquired the Queen, looking questioningly at her brother. While he appeared to be flabbergasted and gave no answer, Echo provided one for him; "Oh, we slayed a Gate Lord!" Aria nodded at him, and asked, "Echo, would you do the honors?"

Immediately, the Ghost materialized the meter-and-a-half long vex head in the air, and it dropped down several feet to land on the metal catwalk with a resounding thud that echoed off the chamber's walls. Both the Queen and the Prince seemed dumbstruck. Aria followed up the conversation by saying, "I need to find the Black Garden."

The Prince's vacant look was replaced with his usual smug one again. "Ha! They don't even know where it is." The Queen, who now appeared thoughtful, did something Aria didn't expect; "Let us tell them. Search the Gate Lord for that which gains them entrance."

The Prince rounded on her quickly, enough to make the Fallen guards startle and ready their spears. "Why?! If you wish them certain death, just kill them here!" he cried, spittle flying from his mouth. The Queen took no notice and calmly said, "Often when we guess at other's motives, we reveal only our own."

The Prince now lowered himself onto one knee, and began to reiterate his motives; "My motive is simply loyalty; to a people, a Queen, and a sister." She turned her head to look at him, a bored and uncaring expression on her face. "Then please! Take what is required."

The Prince stood up and turned, and Aria could see that several emotions and thoughts were battling against each other in his mind, as various expressions conflicted with each other in his facial features. He walked down the few steps to the catwalk, and drew a knife. He paused a moment, and then proceeded to follow his sister's orders, kneeling next to the head and slicing into its brains. A look of consternation crossed his face as he searched around for what he needed to find.

Finally, he drew out his arm holding the eye of the Gate Lord. As Aria watched, the red glow from the eye remained on, but flickered slightly. The Prince scowled. "Mars. Eighty-four north, thirty-two east. Meridian Bay." He tossed the eye towards Aria, most likely expecting her to be caught unaware, but she reacted fast and managed to grasp it before it flew past her. She noted that if she hadn't, that it would have fallen off the catwalk and down into the abyss below. "The charge on the eye is still active, but it won't last long. Don't expect us to help you again if it dies while you're trying to get in."

The Queen stood up from her throne, and faced Aria. "I have shown you benevolence, Guardian. Should the Awoken ever need an ally, I will call on you… and expect you to answer."

The Prince replaced his blade in it sheath, and translated for her; "She's saying you owe us, Guardian."

Aria nodded and said, "I understand." She bowed towards the Queen. "Your Grace." Without another word, she began to walk out of the chamber. When she reached the midway point however, she turned back and called to the Prince who was starting to walk away; "I was attacked, you know. By a minion of the Darkness known as the Messenger."

The Queen appeared surprised, but the Prince only showed a mock form of the expression. "Really? Isn't that interesting." Aria glared at him, and tried again. "I only mean to warn I managed to overcome him, as I will overcome and eliminate any ally of the Darkness that seeks to challenge me." The Prince glared right back, and the Queen looked suspiciously at her brother. Before an argument could start, Aria walked towards the hangar, and exited the throne room.

* * *

 

"I don't think we'll get a second chance at this." Whip looked nervously around the Javelin. "If we pull this off, we can still save the Traveler." Seraph now flew a bit closer, hovering in Matt and Ash's general vicinity to add to the conversation. "And if not, the Darkness will seize our worlds. All of humanity is at risk if the Black Garden sucks out the Traveler's light." She turned to face Matt who had looked up at her in alarm. "But, no pressure!"

"Uh huh. Remind me to never let you give us a pep talk again." He looked over at Ash. "How are we doing on time?"

She glanced down at the destination tracker on the console. "We're less than a minute out, approaching the coordinates now."

They flew over a rocky canyon wall, and suddenly they saw a vast martian landscape come into view. Dunes of red dust stretched for miles and miles. A few hundred yards before them stood a massive time gate, inactive and partially embedded in the sand. Echo popped up on Aria's shoulder. "That's the gate. We should hurry, or the Gate Lord's eye might deactivate." She looked at him. "What's the rush? It doesn't look like it's going to die anytime soon."

Echo turned to face her. "Maybe not now, but I assume you want to get back to our normal realm after defeating the Black Garden's heart?" She pondered this a moment before understanding what he meant. "From what I've heard about the Black Garden, it's a separate dimension, locked out of time and space by the Vex to keep it safe. We had no idea it was siphoning off the Traveler's light of course, we just thought it was a fortress or safe heaven for them."

"So," began Ash, the truth dawning on her, "If the eye dies while we're in there, we'll be stuck forever?" The Ghost began to shake its body. "Not exactly. See, the heart is likely holding the Black Garden together, keeping all of its reality in place outside the time stream. Once it dies, I assume that the Garden will begin to collapse. If you're stuck inside when that happens, then you'll collapse along with it and be erased from existence when it completely dissolves in time."

All three Guardians stared at Echo. He quickly said, "Or, you know, I could be totally wrong."

Matt shook his head. "Well, thanks for that." The Javelin slowed down until they hovered in front of the gate.

"Seraph?" She turned to face Matt. "Yes?" "I want to scout out the land a moment. This won't take long, I just want to make sure there aren't any Cabal around. I haven't run into one yet, and I'd rather we don't meet them on this mission." She nodded. "Of course." She and Matt instantly transmitted down to the surface. Ash turned to look at Aria.

"Since when have we ever scouted the land before?" Aria shrugged. "Maybe he's getting smarter, being more careful? It is true that we should have as few risks as possible here." Ash looked back at the console, a look of puzzlement and worry on her face.

* * *

 

"Are you sure? You realize that there might be no coming back from this, right?" Seraph narrowed her blue eye in worry. "I know, but the risks are too great. I won't have them put in that much danger." Matt looked at her. "How far will the connection last?" She looked down sadly. "I'll be able to link with it until the portal closes. Once that happens, both sides will lose connection." He nodded. "Hopefully, I'll be done before then. I trust that this remains between us?" Seraph hesitated a moment before bobbing in agreement.

Matt's helmet speakers crackled to life. "Hello? Matt, what's taking so long?" He looked up at the Javelin hovering in the air still. "It's all good to come down, Ash! Sorry for keeping you guys."

After a moment, both Ash and Aria materialized in the air, and landed on the sandy ground. "Took you long enough," said Aria, and both Guardians joined themselves at Matt's side. "You ready?" Ash asked. He looked at her. "Let's finish this."

Seraph moved up to the ring and presented the eye. Nothing happened for a moment, until blueish white waves of energy began to rupture the space in the center of the time gate. They spread until they reached the structures that contained it, and the portal opened. Light began to emit from it, and it shone on the Guardians, bathing them in blinding white color.

Seraph returned to Matt, the eye back in her storage. "The Portal will only remain open for a bit, you'll have to have the Gate Lord's eye to reopen it!" He nodded, and faced the other two in respective glances. "For the Traveler!" He began to sprint into the portal, Ash and Aria following without even the slightest hesitation. So tightly bonded had they become in their travels that each Guardian had complete faith in the others' abilities, and had no qualms about following each other to the end of time… as they were technically about to do.

Matt felt his body push against the membrane of the portal; it felt almost like a liquid, and had slight resistance. He broke through it, and immediately found himself in a dark and badly lit corridor. Ash and Aria's footsteps followed a moment behind his, and the sounds echoed off the walls.

"Where are we?" asked Aria. Seraph pulsed a few lights out, attempting to answer. "I don't really know. All of my navigation systems are going haywire from being in here. It's not on any known map of space and time, that's for sure." Mossy plant life covered much of the stone around, which appeared to resemble the Vex building blocks that now inhabited Venus. The portal behind them remained open.

"Alright, we haven't got much time." Matt began to set off down the hallway, Ash and Aria following behind. They rounded a corner and immediately readied their weapons at the sight of a Vex Goblin. But something was odd about it, and it did not move.

"It's in some kind of stasis," said Seraph in curiosity. "They all are." At her wording, they turned to look at the rest of the hallway to see rows of the odd Goblins all frozen and inactive. They wore loin-cloths, and moss dangled from their heads. They appeared to be older, more worn than the Vex they'd faced before. If it was true that they were locked out of time currently, these Goblins could have been from the past, stuck for millennia in this state.

They once again began their journey towards the heart. After navigating through some more passages, and ascending a long staircase, they were greeted by a stunning view.

"Whoa," muttered Ash. For miles upon miles, rows and walls of flowers and plants lined the interior of the Black Garden. Off in the distance, Matt could see mountain ranges, emphasizing how vast the garden truly was. "I think that's where the heart is," said Seraph, indicating a large mass of black shadow that rose out of a pit situated roughly a half mile from them.

Massive rock walls formed a spherical container, almost as though they were inside the core of a planet, or large asteroid. Matt didn't really care where they were, only that it ceased to exist soon. "C'mon," he said, and they began to walk towards the right, the only real path they could take towards the heart.

As they strode along the walkways, Matt marveled at the lack of resistance. Apparently the Vex had never expected anyone to ever breach their sanctuary here, and hadn't taken the time to place defenses. Goblins in stasis continued to appear in the hallways, their eyes devoid of any glow, and almost peaceful looking. Occasionally, breaks in the walls allowed them to see the Garden, and Matt had to admit, it looked like quite the beautiful place. Why the Vex had need of beauty when they hated all life, he had no idea. It reminded him of the lotus flower, luring you in with appearance, but consuming you with the Darkness. He shook his head to clear out the bad thoughts.

Eventually, they came to a large circular door, with layers of metal providing cover for what lay beyond. A single conflux stood in front of it. "Beyond that is the heart. Let me scan the conflux." Matt allowed Seraph to fly over, and begin analyzing it. Thin blue beams shot from her eye into the conflux as she attempted to open the door. "There! All we need is permission to enter… as a Gate Lord."

Seraph materialized the Gate Lord's eye, and allowed the conflux to scan it. Suddenly, a rectangular blue monolith formed at the top of the conflux, marked with various lines and patterns. They felt a rumble, and turned to see a spire constructing itself out of the cubic white light that seemed to be associated with Vex structure. Once it was fully built, they watched the blue monolith rise into the air, until it split along all the seams in its glass-like material, separating along the lines that traversed its surface. The pieces moved around to create an intricate web of glass shards hovering in the air. A beam of light shot out of the spire, and hit a cylindrical piece of glass. It then split into several other beams, refracting and reflecting off the other shards until they came back together and entered a circular slot in the massive door.

The reaction was immediate, and the layers of the door began to shift and peel upwards to reveal an entryway. Greenish yellow light poured out from it, and washed over them, giving off a sickly appearance in color. The Guardians stood shoulder to shoulder, realizing the significance of what they were about to do. Matt took a few steps forward, with one hand back to signal that the other two should wait a moment. Then he turned back to look at Seraph.

"Alright, Seraph. The eye?" Seraph flew closer to him, and handed him the eye, its red light now beginning to flicker on and off. Ash could have sworn that the Ghost almost looked crestfallen. "Matt? Why do you need the eye?"

He looked at her, and she felt that behind his helmet he was giving her a sad sort of smile, one of regret. "I'll need to to activate the time gate again, assuming I survive killing the heart." She held a hand up, trying to stop him from saying what she thought he was saying. "You mean when  _we_  kill the heart, right?"

He looked down slightly, and then looked back at her and Aria. "No. Just me. If what Echo said is true, then I refuse to risk either of your lives with something this dangerous." Now Aria entered the conversation. "What, you don't think we can handle this?"

He rounded on her directly. "It's not that I don't think you can handle this. It's that I'm not sure if we can do it without running out of time or dying in the process. And I value you two too much to allow that." He faced Ash again, and this time Ash knew that he was giving her the smile she'd thought he had been before. "I want you to know that I really do wish I could do this with you. But I won't have any more loved ones deaths on my conscience." Without another word to either of them, he turned to his young Ghost companion. "Seraph?"

The Ghost began to emit blue light, and Ash saw herself and Aria surrounded in the familiar grid that signaled a transmat. She tried to escape, to run to Matt and go with him, to face whatever enemies dared to think they could break them apart, but her efforts were in vain.

Matt watched his companions disappear, including Seraph, and suddenly he felt more alone then he had in all of his new life. Even as a newborn Guardian, he'd had Seraph for company. But now, nobody walked at his side. No one would be there to help him up if he fell. With a sigh of acceptance, he turned and peered into the vault-like opening. Beyond the green mist that poured out, he could see a silent and still ceremony, witnessed by frozen Vex Goblins and three ancient statues. In the air was a pulsating, blackness oozing object that appeared to be more fluid than solid, and he could almost feel hatred radiating off of it. It was definitely the heart of the Black Garden.

As he walked through the opening, he noticed movement in the ranks of the Goblins. Frozen in stasis for so long, he could hear the squeaking of aged metal, and watched as mossy growth swung from their heads as they turned to face the being intruding upon their sacred ritual.

He took a good look at all of them, sizing up his opponents. He nodded to himself, satisfied, and looked at the eye in his hand. Its light continued to blink until it faded away, and winked out of existence. He sighed. "Well, only one course of action here." Before he did anything else, he pulled out the photographs that he'd kept in a pocket of his belt. He held them up to his visor, looking at the expressions on his, Lucas's, and Sara's faces, as well as the twins'. All happy, all smiling. He muttered, "I'm coming, guys. Just be patient for a few more minutes."

He clenched his fist in emotion, and stuffed them back into the pocket he'd pulled them out of. Then, he readied his hand cannon, looked at the heart, and gathered his courage. "The Traveler sends its regards, and would like to tell you to burn in hell."

He charged into the fray.

* * *

 

Aria felt her feet land on metal. She looked around to see the interior of the Javelin. Whip and Echo were nearby, hovering over the console, and turned in surprise to see their Guardians back on the ship. Ash balled her hands into fists in frustration, and then pointed a shaking finger at Seraph. "You! Take us back, NOW!" The young Ghost shook herself sadly. "I can't. Look at the gate." Ash walked forward a few feet to look out of the viewport, and saw the time gate into the Black Garden deactivating. The waves of energy that formed the portal had begun to shrink with idle activity, and disappeared, leaving behind nothing but an empty ring. Ash turned around and punched a corner of the Pilot's seat. The metal dented, and crumpled beneath her force.

"Godammit, no! We can't just leave him in there!" Seraph looked at her. "Didn't you just see that? Only the Gate Lord's eye can activate it now, I can't bring us back!" Whip now flew closer, curious. "What's going on?"

Ash once again stabbed a phalange at Seraph and yelled, "This little chunk of metal just transmatted us! Matt is down there, about to fight the heart by himself!" Seraph faced Whip. "He asked me to! I didn't want him to do it, but he said that going alone was the only way to protect them."

Aria watched Seraph spin around to indicate Ash and herself, and she realized that Matt was only trying to place his friends lives above his, however misguided he was acting. Ash wasn't having any of it.

"We need to go back! He'll die if we don't help him!" Seraph's eye closed sadly. "There's nothing I can do."

Aria thought to herself, agreeing with Ash that they needed to get back to Matt. But anger was not the way to go here. She approached the young Ghost and asked, "Seraph? You've known Matt longer than any of us. You truly believe that he'd sacrifice his life for us, right?"

She looked at Aria, and nodded. "Without a doubt. He may not act like it at times, but his soul is one of the purest I've ever had the privilege to see." Aria nodded in acknowledgement. "Now, I want you to picture the three of us, Matt, Ash and I. All the times he's saved us, he's taken care of us. Do you have any hesitation in saying that we would do the same for him?" The Ghost did not answer.

"We would do anything for each other, just as he's doing this for us right now. Believe us when we say, that unless we help him, he will die. And we can't allow that, just as he can't allow us to come into harm. Please, think of anything you can to get us back there." Seraph looked down, pondering. Then she snapped up to face Aria again.

"I'm not sure, but there is something I can try. If it works, then by all means, let's go save him. Lord knows I don't want my Guardian dead."

Ash looked speechless. Aria ignored her, locked gazes with the Ghost, and said, "Do it."

* * *

 

Matt crouched behind a block of stone, his cloak smoking from Vex fire that had singed holes through it. His armor was peeling in several places from the wear that their many weapons were placing upon it. Luckily, he only had a few more to go. He popped back out from behind cover, and summoned what light he could being this close to such a dark entity. He entered his Blade Dancer's trance, and sprinted at the various Goblin that shot at him. He tore through the ranks, metal limbs flying in every direction. He spun and attacked, dodged, attacked again with a swipe, dodged, weaving in and out through the dangerous opponents. He felt the exhilarating rush of light that coursed through him while in his trance leave his body, and he felt drained. Fortunately, he'd managed to kill every last Vex enemy in the area. He pointed at the heart in a "what now" sort of gesture.

"Is that it? Don't put up much of a fight, do you?" He almost laughed, before he saw an aura of sickening yellow light expel itself from the heart. It traveled towards one of the statues, the one on the far left side of the arena, and he watched it seep into the cracks and crevices of the stone. Suddenly, rumbling noises began to emit from it, and he saw the cracks in the statue widen and spread across the surface. He noticed now that the statues were of giant Vex beings, larger than the Gate Lord that his fireteam had faced, and with a roar, the massive Vex broke free of its stone prison. Chunks of rock flew everywhere, and it stepped onto the ground, looking around to land its gaze on Matt, the only threat in the room.

"I had to open my mouth, didn't I?" he muttered, and the oversized Vex enemy emitted a series of squeals in his direction before charging towards him.

He rolled to the right side of it before it brought its massive arm down on the area he'd just been standing in before. The stone cracked under the pressure, and Matt felt the ground quake from the impact. He spun to face it, and he moved to summon his rocket launcher that Seraph kept in storage, before realizing that she was gone, and he had nothing but a sniper and a hand cannon. He swore loudly, and ducked to avoid the Vex's fist swing in an arc that would have decapitated him. After it swung, he saw that it too had a white center like all Vex. On a hunch, he used his hand cannon and fired off multiple rounds into the glass cover that protected the wiring inside.

It took but a few shots before the glass shattered, and he jumped onto its waist, holding onto its sides to keep from falling off as it swung itself around in an effort to fling him free. Pulling out his knife with one hand, he reached into its interior, and began randomly slicing with excess force, cutting through vital wiring and machinery that allowed the machine to function. With a loud and drawn out groan, the Vex sank to its knees, and pitched over to the side, unable to continue working.

He let go of it, panting from his effort to hold on, only for another cloud of yellowish light to travel into the statue directly behind him, to the far right of the chamber. He turned, and tried to ready himself, though he now felt unsteady on his feet. His only consolation was that the heart appeared to be pulsing more frantically now, more desperate than it had appeared to be at the beginning of this confrontation. Perhaps if he kept killing these things, the heart would die.

The new Vex enemy sprang to life from its entombment, and it immediately began to focus fire on Matt. He rolled to avoid a blast of purple energy it fired at him, and he unslung his sniper. He fired round after round into its chest cavity, breaking the glass again and sending one round tearing through the core. It obviously damaged the creature, but it wasn't enough, and it attempted to flatten him beneath its feet. He dodged again, and summoned every ounce of light he had to bring forth his Golden Gun. He shot off all his rounds into the central wiring of the Vex, and now smoking through various holes in its armor, it too crumpled like the first.

He knelt down to regain his strength, now feeling as though something had sucked the life out of him. He nearly passed out from exhaustion, and only through sheer luck managed to register the sound of stone crumbling in his vicinity. He spun around too late to see that the third statue had come to life, and it reached down to grab him in its oversized fists. He found himself struggling against its grip, and try as he might he could not escape. It began to squeeze, trying to break him with sheer force. He felt something crack in his chest region, and realized some of his ribs had just splintered into small pieces. He gasped to get air, and felt a stabbing pain in his lower back and rib area. The Vex turned, and threw him nearly fifteen meters onto a raised platform that acted as a bridge between stone pyramidal structures that adorned either side of the massive chamber. He slid several feet, and hit his head against a wall of stone that connected to the bridge. He saw a flash of blackness in his vision, and felt his mind shutting down from pain. With a grunt of effort, he forced himself to stay awake, and refrain from entering unconsciousness.

Though he was easy pickings now, the Vex seemed reluctant to come any closer, and almost appeared confused. He remained curious of its change of heart, until he heard a familiar voice say, "Come on. It's not over yet." He turned his bruised head to see Ash leaning forward, and extending her hand to him. Aria stood behind her, watching their exchange.

He asked, "Is this one of those parts in movies where the hero hallucinates of his closest friends accompanying him before he faces death?" Ash laughed, and replied, "Only if he's about to die from pulling an absolutely idiotic move that will cause his robotic girlfriend to murder him in anger after she saves his life. Now hurry up, my arm's getting tired." With a sigh, he took her hand, and she pulled him up so he could sit up straight against the wall. He looked at her. "How did you two even get back here?"

Ash gestured to Seraph. "Apparently the Gate Lord's eye activated the time gate for an extended time, rather than just as a one off. It only deactivated to save power. Seraph just approached it, presented a digital imprint of the eye that she'd collected, and the portal opened again. Since I'm assuming that the eye is dead, we've only got a few minutes perhaps before it closes for good." She nodded her head towards the Vex. "Aria and I'll take care of him. You've done enough." With that, she turned and sprinted towards the large Vex, Aria following behind her. It shrieked, and moved to accept their challenge.

Seraph moved closer to him. Her blue scanning beam shot out from her eye, and she analyzed his body. "You've got minor fractures all over your bones, your lower two left ribs have completely shattered into splinters, and several sharp pieces of them have punctured your left lung. You've also got a dislocated shoulder, a concussion, and possible brain damage from head trauma. I can't believe that you thought this was the best course of action."

Matt watched his friends fighting the Vex, and though they were powerful, he still felt the need to help. He looked over at Seraph. "I need my rocket launcher, quick. I might be out physically, but I can still contribute."

Aria dodged multiple swipes of the large fists that were connected to the powerful Vex being. She jumped into the air, and summoning her void energy, launched a Nova Bomb at it. It missed by a few feet but managed to land close enough to disintegrate part of its lower leg, and stagger it. She watched Ash fly into the fight, and use her arc powered fists to channel her Fist of Havoc into the ground at its feet. Electric surges rode up into its circuits, and several mechanisms in its legs stopped working, forcing it to fall to its knees.

"Hey, metalhead!" Aria heard the hoarse voice of Matt call out to the Vex, and it turned its massive head towards him. Sitting against the stone rock that they'd left him on, he now wielded his rocket launcher. He fired two rounds into the chest of it. The first impacted against its armor, and broke the plating that protected the vital machinery inside. The second rocket slammed through the interior, and ripped through its wiring. The projectile then exploded, incinerating the entire torso of the enormous Vex in one fell swoop. Its arms and head fell to the ground, now unsupported by a chest or upper body at all.

"That should do it!" cried Seraph. Aria looked to see the heart now ceasing to pulse, and instead begin to slowly disintegrate. Black ashes began to fly off of it, and she saw that not only the heart, but the stone and surrounding area were beginning to dissolve as well. "The Black Garden's reality is falling apart!" she yelled, and Ash nodded, jumping and using her thrusters to land next to Matt. Without a word, she slung him over her shoulder, and began to run back towards the entrance to the heart's lair. Aria followed closely behind, noticing more and more black ash filling the air as reality itself began to erase and dissolve in the time stream.

Ash and Aria continued to run through the entrance, and entered the labyrinth of corridors and passages back towards the time gate. The dilution of the dimension itself continued to chase them, urging them forward to avoid being erased from existence. After several minutes, the other side of the time gate came into view, and Seraph flew ahead to present the digital imprint. "Hurry, the gate's nearly dead!" she shouted. White waves of energy began to weakly create the portal, and it now appeared to be unstable, drawing from its last reserves of energy to sustain itself. Ash and Aria said nothing, and instead continued to run towards their escape, with Matt still hanging on Ash's back.

Aria briefly turned to see a horrifying sight; nothing remained of the black garden behind them besides the corridor they were running in, which also was beginning to convert to ash, the time stream eating away at the very fabric of space and time here. It left behind nothing but pitch black void that swallowed up all the light in the realm. She faced forward again, and entered an even faster sprint to carry her through to safety. The portal started to flicker in and out until she pushed through the membrane with Ash at her side, and-

She fell forward, tumbling through the rusty sand dune of Mars that they'd landed on, Ash falling as well and losing her hold on Matt. Both the Titan and the Hunter rolled down the incline to slide into place next to Aria at the bottom. She turned to watch the time gate as the waves of energy began to shake in place, and suddenly the structure of the gate itself exploded in reaction to its sibling being erased from existence itself. The burning bars of metal curled in on themselves, and cooled in the Mars climate.

"Ow." Both Aria and Ash looked to see Matt groaning in pain, his dislocated arm pinned under Ash's weight. "Sorry!" She rose up, and began to pull him up as well, into an upright position. Without warning, she gripped his arm, and shoved it back into place in its socket. He yelped from the shock. "Oh, you're lucky that's all I'm gonna do after the stunt you pulled." Though it was an obvious threat, Aria couldn't help but notice that Ash said it with an air of playfulness, and was simply relieved that he was still alive. She bent down and hugged him, and the Warlock would have bet any glimmer she had that if the Exo had been capable, she would be crying tears of joy at the moment. "I thought we'd lost you. I thought  _I'd_  lost you!" Though she may have been unable to shed tears, her voice still carried the emotion that she felt, the love that she had for the Hunter. He shrugged,

"Well, I'm right here, so no need to worry." He gave a tired laugh, and Aria and Ash couldn't help but join in.

"Indeed, you're right here. Such a perfect opportunity, especially in the condition you're in."

Aria spun around, and though she was tired, she geared up for another fight at the sound of the all too familiar menacing voice. Ash immediately placed herself between Matt and the newcomer, shielding him from attack. Standing a few meters in front of them was the Messenger, and several Cabal were situated around him and them. The stood taller than any of the enemies they'd faced before, massive eight hundred pound mounds of muscle and armor, ready to squash her at the slightest inclination. She realized that they were surrounded in a circle of foes, and summoned what energy she had to prepare for a fight. Fire danced around the palms of her hands, and she entered a battle stance. The Messenger held up a hand.

"Before we begin, I'd like to discuss a very important matter, if it's all the same to you." He faced Ash now, and his metallic features contorted themselves into a genuine expression of- was that sadness? "I can't believe it's you, after all this time. I had my doubts, but I have seen for myself that it is true. You returned!" Ash kept her weapon raised, but replied back, attempting to get some answers. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you're more than welcome to explain. Who are you, really?" His face looked pain at her lack of recognition. "I understand that it was likely you wouldn't remember anything if you were gallivanting around with this lot, but I still hoped you at least would recall me."

Ash's visor depolarized, and Aria watched her eyes narrow at the Messenger. "Still doesn't mean much, and I don't know where your path and mine intersect. Please explain, before I lose my patience." He nodded. "Very well."

"There were three of us, three chosen soldiers, bred for battle. The Darkness can't make life in a natural organic form, as life is its opposite, but it can certainly fill beings with its own power. We were old and forgotten carcasses, robotic companions that had long since rusted and died, thrown out by the humans that had no need of dysfunctional machines. We were dead, empty shells that continued to erode until the Darkness found us, and brought us back for its own purposes. We sought revenge against the light which had cast us out and left us to rot, and the Darkness provided exactly that possibility. It repaired us, redesigned us, and gave us new purpose and life in the goal of unleashing death." He shrugged. "It saw that Guardians were the apparent pawns of the Traveler, used to fight its battles, and considering how effective a strategy it proved to be, decided to make its own Guardians, its own wardens of the Darkness to oppose the blinding and insufferable light spread by the Traveler and humanity."

Ash stood steady on her feet, but her voice shook as she asked her next question; "Who was I? What was I called?"

He looked at her, his face full of hope that she would be converted to his side. "We had no names, save for our purpose. Mine, the Messenger, created to talk and command the armies of the Darkness in movements against the light. Another, the Assassin, used to eliminate troublesome Guardians and high value followers of the light that threatened to oppose our mission. She left quite a while ago, tainted by pathetic feelings of remorse and guilt, instead opting to once again work for those who had so mistreated her in her past life." He gestured at Ash now. "And you, the Warrior. Valiant defender of us and the Darkness, you prevented any major opposition that carried the potential to throw our plans off track."

A pained expression returned to his face. "That was how you died. I advised you against it, but you stubbornly said that you could handle a rumored uprising we'd heard about, and that some jobs needed to be done by those willing to place themselves below the needs of their allies. You did always put me and the Assassin before yourself, often placing yourself in the line of danger to stop us from receiving a stray bullet or two. You set out that day intending to crush a minor force of the City, but you weren't ready for the full-fledged ambush that awaited you. You took nearly everyone down with you, I could tell from the body count, but you were beyond recovery. The Darkness may have said to leave you, and I admit that was the one time I felt reluctant to obey." Now a smile came onto his features, and Aria found it oddly disturbing. "But now, you're back! Back after nearly two decades, and I promise that we can still win this war."

He held out his hand, offering it to her. "Join me once more, and I will never allow harm to come to you again. You didn't understand what you were doing in the Black Garden, and all can be forgiven if you just repent and come back to your true side, your family."

Ash now shook in both shock and moral agony of learning what she had once been. The Messenger had spoken of her slaughtering Guardians, fellow members of the light, easily and without mercy. Had she truly been such a sadistic worshipper of the Darkness? If she was such a monster, perhaps she  _did_  belong with the Messenger and the Dark.

She heard a noise, and turned to see Matt moving slightly behind her. Sitting up on the bank of sand behind her, he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. His visor depolarized as well, and she could see an expression of pleading in his eyes. As she stared into his face, she thought back to the Exo stranger's words;  _Perhaps I fought for a side too long before realizing I was on the wrong one._ Ash knew now that she'd once been an ally of the Darkness, but that didn't mean she'd been right the first time. She didn't have to be 'the Warrior' anymore, she was Ash; Guardian of the Traveler.

Slowly, turned again, and shook her head at the Messenger. His eyes narrowed in concern, and he hurriedly said, "Please don't do this. You have no idea how long I've missed you. Don't make me destroy you!" She placed her gun on her back, but raised her fists, saying, "The only things to be destroyed today will be any ties I ever had with the Darkness, including you!" The Messenger lowered his head, reluctant of what he was about to do. From his despairing appearance he muttered, "Very well." He waved his hand, and immediately the Cabal around them fired their cannons directly at the Guardians.

Aria closed her eyes, but felt nothing, and opened them again to see that Ash had placed a Ward of Dawn around them. Her face was screwed up in concentration, focusing on blocking out the missiles. Aria turned to Seraph and asked, "Where's our evac?" The Ghost looked at her and replied, "Already on their way. Should be here in a few seconds."

Indeed, the scream of the Javelin soaring across the sky could be heard mere moments later, and Aria prepared for a transmat. She had but a second to see the Messenger yell, "NO!" before she felt herself falling into place on her seat. She fastened her harness as they accelerated out of the atmosphere, and looked at Ash piloting the ship. The Titan remained silent, but her hands gripped the controls exceptionally hard, and the Warlock wondered if the Exo was just trying to keep herself from breaking down at the moment.

Matt sat nearly passed out in his seat, finally succumbing to his injuries, his head lolling to the side as the Javelin rattled from the speed they were using to escape the planet's gravity. Aria gripped the armrests as she feared that the ship would shake itself apart if they kept up this pace. Finally, it ceased, and they continued on their journey home. A beeping noise emitted from the console, and Ash looked over to peer at the radar. She swore. "We're being followed! There's a ship a few hundred meters behind, gaining fast!"

Aria leaned forward to indeed see a white dot moving closer and closer to their own dot in the center of the radar. When it looked like it was nearly upon them, Aria glanced at the external monitors of the Javelin, to see a dark grey and odd looking ship catching up to them. To her incredible shock, she watched it pull up alongside their ship, and then a hatch opened at the top to reveal the Messenger. He began to stand on the exterior of the ship as they flew through space, and he made his way to their ship, hopping aboard. He began to approach the engines on either side of the Javelin.

"Shit, he's going to try and sabotage our engines! He's gotta be magnetizing himself to the metal of the ship to keep from flying off!" Ash began to unbuckle herself from her harness, but stopped at the feeling of Aria's hand on her shoulder. "I can do this, just keep flying," said the young Warlock, and without waiting for an answer she turned to Echo who was looking nervously at her. "Can you do the same thing Echo, magnetize my boots to the exterior?" He moved towards her feet, shot a few beams of blue light at the metal soles of her shoes, and looked up again. "You're good to go." She nodded, and grabbed a sturdy metal cable nearby. "Come with me, I might need you." She made sure her helmet was sealed to keep in oxygen, and began to climb up out of the hatch that allowed access to the outside.

There was no wind, but she felt herself beginning to lean towards the rear of the ship as momentum against the ship's trajectory caused her to angle backwards. She fully climbed out as the power of the engines provided some sound by reverberating throughout the metal plating of the ship, sounding like low hums and echoes. Once the hatch door was closed, she spied the Messenger still struggling to move towards the engines. She changed her channel frequency to open so he could hear her, and yelled, "Don't touch it! If this ship goes down, Ash goes down too!"

He turned to face her. "Oh, once I take out the engines, I'll make sure to collect Ash before the ship explodes. I won't allow her to die the death that awaits you and the disgusting human!" He then looked back to the engine's propulsion, and grabbing a grenade from his belt, he jammed it into the spinning rotors of the propulsion intake. After a second's pause, a somewhat muffled explosion appeared, and vanished, the lack of oxygen in space immediately stopping the fire in the vacuum.

With no time to waste, she began to move as fast as she could towards him. He turned, and began to shoot void projectiles at her, much like she had with the Minotaurs on Venus. She brought her arms up, and created a flame shield, incinerating the shards before they reached her, and remaining unharmed. With a yell, he began to summon a large ball of void energy to throw at her, but she had prepared, and concentrated on controlling the void energy in his hand. With some focus, she managed to make it explode, and it threw him backwards, detaching his feet from the hull of the ship. With a wild swing, he managed to grasp onto a handle that was meant to be held in external repair situations, and held on while Aria still moved forward.

Echo appeared at her side, and she began to issue orders. "Hey, start working on the engine and fixing it! I'll deal with him!" The Ghost flew over to the damaged mechanism, and began fixing it, removing shards that were blocking the rotors from spinning. She kept walking until she stood next to the Messenger who was hanging along for dear life. She brought her hand up to push him off, but a sudden lurch in the ship caused by the unequal power distribution between the engines knocked her off her feet as well. She too gripped a nearby handle to prevent herself from flying off into space.

The Messenger took the opportunity to use his free hand to try and punch Aria, in an attempt to knock her loose. She retaliated, using her corresponding hand to block blows, and attack him as well. She spoke over the comms, directly to Ash; "Start rolling the ship!"

"What?!" came the reply. She yelled into her speakers, "He's almost loose! Start spinning to fling him off!"

She heard a groan of worry on Ash's side, but sure enough, the Javelin began to enter a barrel roll. The centripetal force began to throw Aria and the Messenger out into the fringes of the circle the ship was making. They continued to punch at each other, both refusing to give up. Fortunately, Aria had backup.

The engine that had been filled with blockage had started up again, having been fixed by Echo. After doing his job, the Ghost made his way over to where his Guardian was fighting for her life against the Messenger.

Echo moved over to them, trying to help Aria. He began to emit a harsh white light from his eye, burning through the handle that the Messenger was holding onto, and melting the metal. The Messenger now focused on the Ghost, trying to swipe at him and stop him, but the damage was done. With a final slice, and a kick in the chest from Aria, the Messenger's handhold fell away from the ship, and he spun out into the emptiness of space. The ship that had been next to the Javelin had stopped, so that it could retrieve him. The Javelin moved on unhindered.

"Ash, stop spinning, and enter warp-space!" shouted Aria. True to her command, the ship did exactly that. Aria took a moment to fasten the cable she'd grabbed to her handhold and to her armor, so that she was prevented from flying off. She hugged the hull of the ship, and as the bluish white light of warp-space began to envelop the Javelin, she allowed herself to pass out.

* * *

 

Matt opened his eyes.

He was in a white bed, with the walls and decor of the room he was in reflecting the same color. He supposed he was in an infirmary. He heard the door open, and looking over to his left, he watched Ash walk in. She had removed her armor, and just wore her black jump suit.

"Feeling better?" she asked. He tentatively moved his body around. His arm now felt fine, but there was still a lot of pain in his rib area and head, albeit a lot less than right after he'd been smacked by the giant Vex. "Yeah, somewhat."

"Seraph fixed what she could while we were on the Javelin. Once we arrived at the Tower and brought you here, one of the medical Warlocks came in here and used a portion of radiance on you. Though since you're not a Warlock and not really made to handle abilities like that, she could only give it to you in bits and doses." Ash sat down on the bed, and a serious expression adorned her face. "You were so close to dying, it was scary. Your heart actually stopped once while she was healing."

She looked like she was about to cry, though obviously she couldn't. He opened his arms in a welcoming gesture, and she laid down on the bed next to him, as he wrapped his arms around her. "It's alright Ash, everything's gonna be okay."

"No, it isn't." She almost sounded like she was sniffling. "Didn't you hear what the Messenger said? About what I used to be,  _who_  I used to be?" He nodded. "Of course I heard it, but that doesn't change anything.  _You_  never killed anyone, the Warrior did. And  _she_  doesn't exist anymore, you do." She raised herself up on one arm to look at him. "But we're the same person! Different memories maybe, but still the same! How could I have been so evil, so… dark?" Her electric blue eyes were staring into Matt's, as she sought for any possible answer that could quell her fears. He tried. "That's the thing, you're not the same. Had you been the same, you wouldn't have saved us from the Messenger, wouldn't have allowed us to escape, wouldn't still be fighting for the Traveler even now!"

Apparently it wasn't enough. "That's no excuse. I could still have some remnant of her inside me, just waiting to be released. And you're in danger as long as I remain close to you." He opened his mouth to begin the next stage of his argument, but stopped once he'd registered what she'd said. "Wait, as long as you're close to me? What do you mean?"

She gave a sad and regretful expression. "I mean, that we can't do this anymore. For as long as I'm a risk to you, I can't take the chance of allowing any past form of the Warrior to take revenge on you." He grabbed her hand fiercely, and said, "That's a risk I'm willing to take. Please don't do this."

She just shook her head. "I'm sorry, Matt." She then stood up from the bed, and walked out the door of the room. Matt still sat upright, stunned from the recent events, somehow now feeling worse than he had before she'd come in.


	10. Manifest Destiny

Matt leaned on the wall, waiting for Ash to join him. She was already a minute or two late, and he supposed that she was trying to mentally prepare herself for what was about to happen. It was understandable, but all the same, she needed to start pushing past this stuff. Granted, her past life was a lot for her to process, but he'd had to deal with the loss of everyone he'd ever known; he'd also had reality-shattering revelations, and while he completely sympathized with how she was feeling, and had no intention of rushing her through it, he still hoped deep inside him that she would adapt and overcome just a bit faster than she currently was.

For the last two months as defenses had been built up around the City, she'd been working through her issues. Matt had been as helpful as he could, but it had become difficult with her pushing him away or ignoring any feelings other than distant and professional interactions between the two of them when they came together. He could tell it pained her almost as much as it pained him, but she still managed to keep it up. After what she'd dealt with recently, he didn't really blame her for trying to maintain her vigilance, and he thought back to the events after they'd killed the Black Garden's heart…

* * *

\- 2 Months Ago, 2 Days After the Black Garden's Destruction -

* * *

Aria helped Matt as she, him, and Ash walked into the Vanguards' chambers. The radiance therapy had continued to help Matt over the last two days, but it hadn't healed him completely yet, and he was forced to walk around with a set of plate-like bandages wrapped around his abdomen at all times to keep the broken shards of his ribs from bursting through his stomach. Descending the four steps and moving to the Vanguard's table was a bitch, but he shut his mouth, refusing to even give off any idea of the pain he was feeling, lest they keep him in the infirmary longer. He hated it there, stuck in a bed and treated as though he were some incapable weakling. All he'd been waiting to do was get out of that room, and he wasn't going to ruin any chance of getting out sooner.

The Vanguards stood in their normal positions. This time, instead of standing next to their respective mentors, the three Guardians took up the vacancy between Cayde and Ikora, unconsciously moving to keep themselves together, having bonded so strongly throughout their struggles.

"So," began Zavala, "Do you want to tell us where you've been on and off to for the past week? Only one day have you come back to the Tower, and then you were gone the next. It's been nearly two days since any contact with you three, and suddenly you rush back here, all of you in exhaustive conditions, and he's nearly dead with more injuries than we could count," he said, gesturing at Matt. "Explain."

Aria took a deep breath, ready to explain. Matt wasn't going to, what with pain searing up his chest every time he took a breath, and Ash didn't need to personally retell any of the traumatic experience. "We were contacted a while ago by a mysterious stranger, an Exo woman. She told us things that we needed to tell you, but there hasn't been much time. We decided to do what we could by ourselves, so that if there was a trap set aside for us, nobody else would be caught in the crossfire." The three Vanguards still looked slightly frustrated, but their harsh expressions lessened at hearing that they'd remained out of contact for others' protection.

"She told us of the Darkness's plan, it's scheme for the Traveler and humanity's extinction. There were three components, one of which we managed to stop." She passed a moment to indicate herself and her companions. "First was the Spark of the Traveler, stolen long ago by the Darkness's armies, likely the Vex, though possibly the Messenger himself." Ikora gasped. "So our suspicions were correct! We may not have been alive at the time of the Collapses end, but we had heard rumors and legends of something being taken from the Traveler, responsible for its comatose state."

Aria nodded. "We haven't been able to do anything about that, but we managed to stop the second phase of the plan; the Black Garden's heart that has been siphoning off the Traveler's remaining life for decades, possibly longer. With the help of the Awoken, we-" Cayde held a hand up. "Wait, what do the Awoken have to do with this?" She faced him. "They granted us access to the Garden by means of extracting a Gate Lord's eye. Though the Prince was less than helpful, we- or I rather- am in debt to the Queen for her assistance."

He nodded, satisfied with this knowledge. "Alright, I get it now. Continue." She did so. "Well, we faced down the Black Garden's heart, and lived to tell the tale. Due to this dolt's idea of self-sacrifice-" she pointed vigorously at Matt, "-he managed to get banged up pretty badly before Ash and I came in to assist him. He tried to fight it alone, but obviously he wasn't as prepared as he thought. Still managed to take it on for quite a while, though. Anyway, that's how he became so badly injured."

"And the third phase?" asked Zavala. "The third phase of the plan is the one to come; the Darkness and the Messenger plan a full scale invasion of the City." None of the Vanguards responded to this, too shocked for words. "The Spark was stolen to keep the Traveler from producing light. The Black Garden siphoned off massive amounts of its remaining light that it still had. And now that the Traveler is vulnerable, the armies of the Darkness will come and destroy it for good unless we begin rallying defenses."

Ikora looked at her, and said, "We'll begin as soon as we conclude this debriefing. Is there anything else we should know?"

Aria bit her lip, but proceeded to say, "Well, yes. We learned that the Messenger wasn't operating alone. At least, not always. The Exo stranger we found was called, 'the Assassin'. She-"

"The Assassin?!" yelled Zavala. "She still lives?!" All three Guardians were stunned by his quite vocal expression. "Y-yes," stammered Aria. "Many of our finest commanders and leaders were slaughtered by her, what motive would she have to help you?" Though only Zavala expressed his hatred, Cayde and Ikora's expressions appeared to agree with his sentiments. Aria tried to defend the stranger. "She said something along the lines of her having fought for the wrong side. She spent all of her interactions with us helping our cause, and helping us stop the Darkness. I believe that whoever she used to be, she's changed."

Zavala snarled. "Perhaps, but I still wouldn't trust her. Once a minion of the Darkness, it is very difficult to go back. It corrupts, and twists your soul. It may be possible, but I've never seen any successful examples." Looking down, Ash shuffled her feet in sad anxiety, after hearing what her mentor had to say. "I suppose, that's why we never heard of the Messenger before. While she mercilessly killed our leaders and was publicized, he stood behind the front lines and had long chats with the Darkness, the coward." Aria ignored his ranting, and continued.

"In addition, we also learned for the first time about 'the Warrior', the third-" Now Ikora raised her voice as well, apparently just as mad as Zavala. "That scum still lives as well?! Why, never have we encountered such a formidable enemy! If I were to ever meet her, I swear upon the Traveler-"

Aria interrupted her quickly. "She doesn't live anymore! At least, not exactly." Cayde adjusted his hood, akin to scratching his head. "You're gonna have to be a bit more specific than that, Warlock." She swallowed. "Well you see, she doesn't live as 'the Warrior'. She was awoken by a Ghost with no recollection of her past, and proceeded to join the Traveler's forces as her first action of her new life." Ikora looked concerned. "But that story sounds remarkably similar to-" Slowly, all three of the Vanguards' gazes turned to Ash, who they now realized was looking rather sad and attempting to avoid their gazes.

Ikora wasted no time, and began to summon void energy. "I have no pity for a demon of hell, and no qualms about sending you back to where you came from." Zavala looked conflicted, and Cayde seemed surprised by the sudden shift in the room. Ash on the other hand, looked petrified, and only held her hands up to shield herself, not even thinking of attacking the Warlock. The ball in Ikora's hand grew brighter, and she said, "Good riddance!"

"NO!" Matt jumped in front of Ash, and used himself as a shield between her and the rage-filled Ikora. "Out of the way, Hunter!" yelled the Vanguard, usually so calm and composed, now looking quite menacing in her fury. Matt paid no mind to either her or the pain in his chest, and slammed his hand on the table.

"I will not! Ash has done nothing wrong! She is not 'the Warrior' which you all hate, and has done nothing in this life except devote herself towards saving the Traveler!" "That's a foolish gambit!" replied Ikora. "As Zavala said, once a minion of the Darkness, always a minion!" Zavala hung his head in guilt for having doomed his protégé. "What if she has simply been a spy, waiting for the right time to strike?" Ash felt offended and hurt, as every word of Ikora's accusations sliced through her heart like a dagger. "She's had more than enough opportunity in all these months of her second life to betray us, but she's never done anything of the kind, nor do I think she ever will! Why would she help us kill the Black Garden's heart otherwise?" Matt challenged. Ikora had no words for this, and Cayde unexpectedly jumped in.

"You know, it's not too crazy to believe." Ikora's head snapped towards the Hunter Vanguard. "If you have something to add, say it!" Cayde walked slowly towards Ash, trying not to provoke Ikora. "Well, while we Exo's have been gifted with souls like humans by the Traveler, ours don't work the same way. A human's soul is bound to their brain and mind, their genes; they are born with a set personality and traits that are determined by chromosomes and DNA. But Exos' bodies are built without set parameters, and their souls are free of bounds. While the Warrior's soul may have once inhabited the same body, it is the mind and soul of Ash that uses it now." He faced his fellow Exo. "In other words, she's a completely different person. None of what happened due to the Warrior's rampage is her responsibility."

Ikora accepted this information, and the void energy in her hand disappeared. "Very well. But I still do not think this a wise move." Matt looked at her and said, "I do. I'd trust her with my life." Ash looked at him in surprise, speechless at the powerful and genuine statement he'd given.

Ikora regarded him with disapproving eyes and responded, "Good, because if you're wrong, you may very well pay with just that." She waved her arm at the exit. "Now if you don't mind, we must start building defenses for the City." Not saying anything, the three Guardians exited the chambers of the Vanguard.

* * *

\- 1 Week Later

* * *

Ash walked by herself through the twilight glow of the Tower's courtyard. It was very late, away from the prying eyes of other Guardians and Vendors. She'd come to a decision about what to do, and nothing was going to stop her from carrying out her plan tonight.

After word had leaked out about what she used to be- rather,  _who_  she used to be- the Tower's occupants had split into two sides over how to react. One, the more frequent and popular opinion, shared Ikora's judgment, and believed that Ash was a potential threat to everyone. They shunned her, treated her with contempt, and she'd heard on more than one occasion plots to rid themselves of her. The fact that plans had already progressed to such an extent chilled her to her core.

The other side was very minor in numbers, and believed what Matt and Cayde had to say. They were under the belief that Ash was a completely different person from the Warrior, and should be treated as such. Failing her being a different person, they upheld that she at least had no memory of what she had ever done, and should be given leniency considering her actions in assisting with the destruction of the Black Garden, and various missions in the ultimate goal of saving the Traveler.

All that was going to end. Ash wasn't going to burden Matt or Aria with having to be associated with her anymore. They insisted that they would stick by her, and that she was family to them, regardless of what anyone else thought. She believed them, but she hated having her misfortune placed upon them as well, and she simply could not have that on her conscience anymore.

She reached her destination; the railing of the Tower. With two hands, she steadily raised herself over the bar and stood on the outer ledge, her only safety line being the railing that she still gripped with her hands. If she was such a large threat, then she couldn't risk her past persona rising up and endangering anyone else. She needed to end any chance of that, and the only way to do that was to end herself. She reasoned that the impact against the ground from this height would likely last less than half a second, and would completely obliterate her before she even registered any pain.

She prepared to let go, but before she could gather the courage, several thoughts crossed her mind. What would Matt think, if her crumpled and crushed body were destroyed? Would he live with her death the same way he lived with Sara? That was the thought that shook her to her core, wondering if she was simply repeating the same thing that Sara had done; gaining Matt's love, and then leaving him and the world behind. Granted, Sara had't had a choice; but Ash did.

Sighing, she stepped back from the ledge, and climbed back over the railing into the safety of the courtyard. She should get back to her room before Whip woke up and started freaking out about where she was-

"Why'd you change your mind? I think you had your decision right the first time."

She looked up to see three Guardians standing before her, strangers to her. Two Hunters and a Titan, all wearing their gear. Evidently, they'd planned for this. They glared at her as she stopped moving, trying to avoid any confrontation.

"I don't want any trouble," she began, holding her hands up to show she meant no harm. "If you didn't want any trouble, you would have thrown yourself off for all those murders you committed a couple of decades ago." The leader, the Titans, cracked his knuckles. "I almost had a shred of respect for what you were doing, but it looks like we'll have to force you to see reason and push you off ourselves."

She raised her fists just in time to block the fist that he'd thrown in her direction. She moved his arm aside, and returned a punch of her own, slamming her hand into his helmet. He took a step back reeling, but a Hunter came to take his place and tackled her to the ground. She tried to resist, but her arms were pinned at her sides. She tried to yell, but the other Hunter brought his hand down on her face, nearly knocking her unconscious and effectively silencing her. She tried to say anything, but only a statical sounding groan escaped her mouth.

"Can't have you calling for help now, can we?" She tried to think clearly and focus, but the more she tried to, the more her thoughts just swam in and out of her currently weak mind, incapacitating her from defending herself. She felt the Titan and a Hunter begin to lift her, and drag her over to the edge. She gave a pathetic kick, trying to fight to the end. She heard a snicker.

Suddenly, the Hunter was grabbed from behind and thrown backwards. The Titan only took a moment to look and see the new threat before a fist slammed into his face once more. Again, he stepped away from Ash, clutching at the front of his helmet and staggering backwards from the trauma. She was dropped, and fell to the ground. She looked up with somewhat blurry vision before her eyes focused on her savior.

Matt stood dressed in his own gear. It was the first time she'd seen him wear it since the Black Garden, he'd spent most of their time back in the infirmary, healing.

The Titan had taken off his helmet to reach his face, and now looked at Matt. It was a human, and he looked quit angry at having been hit in the face twice. He had short buzzed hair, which gave a particularly soldier look about him. "It's you. Look, I don't have any hard feelings against you for that, since In understand that you managed to bond with this loathsome creature. Step away now, and we'll even go get a drink once we've dealt with this."

Ash looked at Matt's face, hidden from view by the visor of his helmet. "No. Don't you dare even think about laying a finger on her." She felt grateful, but also ashamed; that Matt had once again come to her aid despite how distantly she'd been treating him lately. The Titan balled up his fists, and said, "Alright then. First you, then we finish the monster."

An arm reached around Matt's throat from behind as one of the Hunters attempted to choke him out in a headlock. "Don't kill him!" chided the Titan. "He doesn't deserve that, he fights for the Traveler. Only she needs to go." Matt continued to battle the Hunter by jumping onto his back, crushing the air out of his attacker's lungs. He rolled over as they gasped for breath, and slammed his hand into their abdomen, driving all his force directly into their solar plexus, effectively taking them out of the fight.

He then rose up to meet the hand of the other Hunter with a block of his own. Pulling their arm over his shoulder into a vulnerable position, he brought it down and snapped it via hyperextension. The Hunter screamed, and Matt shut him up by delivering a powerful punch to his face. With the second Hunter incapacitated, all that was left was the Titan.

"You can't hold out against me, you know that. You're already weakened from your injuries, and we both know that I'm stronger," reasoned the Titan, still trying to spare Matt a fight. It was true, the Titan was just naturally bigger and stronger than him. But Matt wasn't giving up, and he shook his head. "That may be, but it doesn't take all my strength to drive a knife through you." He pulled his signature blade from its sheath at his side, and held it up for the Titan to see; wickedly sharp, and nearly a foot long.

The Titan hesitated. "You would honestly risk your life, even take the life of another Guardian, just to protect her?" he asked, gesturing to Ash. He seemed shocked that Matt would betray other Guardians rather than helping them kill Ash. "Absolutely," Matt responded, "and I still have the chance unless you back off now."

The Titan remained paused only for a moment longer before he moved to gather his friends off the floor, and they walked away towards the infirmary, with one of the Hunters still whimpering from his snapped arm. Matt waited until they were out of sight to collapse on the ground, drawing in breath rapidly. Ash noticed him clutch his rib cage in pain, and he laid down on the ground in a prone position.

"You're not healed yet?" she asked incredulously, her mind starting to make since again. He shook his head vigorously. "Injuries were… just a bit… severe…" he mumbled between breaths. She tried to stand up, and began to pick him up along with herself. "C'mon," she muttered. "Let's get you back to your room."

She helped him hobble along towards his room, and the next few minutes passed in a blur as she thought about what had just taken place. He'd just risked himself for her again, and at what cost? Now it might take him even longer to heal than the original estimate.

She may have decided against killing herself, but that didn't mean she was out of other options.

* * *

 

The Speaker opened the the door to his inner quarters before Ash could even knock on the door. She'd walked down to his observatory-like area of the Tower, and ascended the staircase to his study, which was next to the entrance of his personal room. She stepped back in surprise for a moment. "How did you-?"

"Please, my dear Ash. I could sense your arrival for some time, the conflicting emotions and warring sides of light within you shone bright like a beacon as you approached." She decided to ignore his techno-babble, and get straight to the point; "I need to leave."

"Leave?" asked the Speaker. He didn't sound surprised, almost as if he'd been expecting this. "And why might that be?" She sighed deeply. He gestured towards his room. "Please, come inside before we discuss this further." She obliged and entered, the Speaker closing the door behind her. She sat down on a nearby armchair, and he drew another one in position close to hers, taking residence on its cushion.

"Now," he began, "what has brought about this rash line of thinking?" She began to explain, and she told him about her feelings of guilt, the shame she felt, how everyone else now treated her like scum except for a select few, and how she endangered those close to her as long as she was around. She revealed her almost successful suicide attempt, the three Guardians who had assaulted her, and Matt's bravery in defending her, dealing even more damage to himself. The Speaker nodded thoughtfully.

"If life was advertised as difficult, I hardly think most of us would accept its gift. However, here we are with the truth of it, forced to deal with consequences and tragedies that many times, are outside our control." He tilted his head slightly, giving his masked face a thoughtful expression. "It seems that you happen to be dealing with such a situation right now." She hung her head. "All I want is to leave, to let Matt and Aria lead normal lives that aren't associated with me and the monster I am." The Speaker leaned forward and placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"What makes you think that you are a monster? The harsh words of others? You have as little knowledge of your past self as we do, perhaps even less so because you weren't even aware of her existence. Who knows? Perhaps, like the Assassin, you were contemplating leaving the Darkness behind?" He leaned back in his chair. "Remember, your Ghost managed to revive you from the light within your soul. Perhaps there was more good in the Warrior than anyone, even she suspected. That light was you, Ash. And without the Darkness of her heart holding you back, your light was able to shine freely without restraint."

Ash sat stunned, having never considered that possibility before. The Speaker patted her shoulder, and stood up. "If you insist on leaving, I will not stop you, but I would highly encourage you to seek strength among friends, and support from those willing to give it to you. Time will allow these old wounds to pass."

* * *

Present Day

* * *

Matt turned at the sound of footsteps dragging him out of his flashback. Walking toward him was Ash, dressed in her undersuit. He himself wore his own black suit underneath some regular clothing which consisted of a jacket and jeans. "You ready for this?" he asked her.

"Where is she?" she responded, calm but noticeable concern in her voice. "Aria's with her already, she's the one who notified us-"

"Not Aria," Ash interrupted, " _her._ " Matt took a deep breath. "In the hangar. She's been waiting for you."

Without another word, Ash set off towards the specified section of the Tower, Matt trailing close behind. He made no move to stop her, as he too was curious about this development.

The Assassin had come to visit.

* * *

 

"I'm telling you," said the Hunter-dressed Exo, "I must speak with Ash and her companions. It is of the utmost-"

Amanda Holliday continued to keep her at bay with her arms crossed across her chest. "Look, I don't recognize you. Maybe you're telling the truth, I don't know. One of them already knows you're here, but until I get confirmation that you're not a threat, you won't be speaking to anyone-"

"Don't worry Amanda," said Ash, coming up from behind the Ship quartermaster. "We've got this one." Holliday was one of the few people who supported Ash and believed she had truly become a new person, separate from the Warrior. "Alright, but this is your call if things go south." The mechanic walked around Ash and stood behind the three Guardians, as Aria had joined Matt and Ash as soon as she'd seen them enter the hangar. The Vanguards had been notified, and though they were very anxious, they had agreed to halt from blowing the Assassin out of the sky, giving one chance for her to prove herself loyal to the Traveler.

"Thank you. There is little time to explain-" began the Assassin, but Ash cut her off. "Little time? Well, you could have at least explained who  _the Warrior_  was, who _I_  was, Assassin." The other Exo's face looked like she'd just been slapped. "So," she started cautiously, "you found out. Look, I don't need to explain my actions-"

"Oh, but I think you do." This time, the quote came from Matt. "You've caused a lot of issues here, when you never bothered to tell Ash her past, only for her to discover it from the mouth of the Messenger himself." The Assassin regarded Ash with sympathy. "I assume the information must have felt like fruit from a poisoned tree."

"You think?" The Assassin lowered her head. "Look, Assassin, don't act like-"

She snapped her head back towards Matt. "Do not call me by that name again. I have not responded to that for… well, a long time. I am not the person I once was." He rolled his eyes. "Okay then, 'stranger'. I mean don't act sympathetic unless you're willing to help out a bit here and explain your actions."

She took a deep breath, and faced Ash. "I did not tell you about your history because I saw how happy you were. Even as a fighter for the Darkness, I had loved both you and the Messenger as family. Seeing as the Darkness knows not of love, I began to question myself, and my feelings. Under discreet conditions, I studied humans. I observed them, learning of how emotionally bonded to one another they could become. It reminded me of my own bonds with you and him, and I realized that the Darkness knew no such bonds. Had it wished it, the Darkness would have ordered me to kill you without even knowing of the pain it would have caused. I chose to leave, rather than let myself fall into a dark spiral. When I saw you again after so many years, I had hoped that you, despite having lost your memory, had found your true calling, helping the Traveler and finding a new family, one that cared about you more deeply than the Darkness ever could."

She finished with an air of finality, and none of the Guardians said anything in response. Then she looked at Matt and Ash. "I also know that you managed to find love in more ways than one. It warmed my heart to see you so full of joy, and life." Matt and Ash turned to each other, pain behind their eyes at their long separation, but also memories of happiness, of cherished times together.

"But that's not why I'm here today." She once again donned an expression of seriousness as they Guardians faced her, confused. "I came to warn you. Even with the Black Garden gone, the Darkness has begun making moves, actions that suggest it will move against the Traveler and the City. Soon."

"How soon?" asked Matt. She grimaced. "Soon enough. I first detected the signs nearly a month ago, and I seemed to have been confirmed when I began tracking different armies' comms. As soon as I realized how close their arrival was, I traveled here to bring the news."

"So, how close is their arrival?" asked Aria, crossing her arms. "Well, it's in between a range of time. It could either be, at the most, by the end of this week, or at the least-"

A light began winking on Amanda's wrist interface. She brought it up to her eyes so she could look at it. She appeared confused for a moment. "What? But there aren't supposed to be…" Then her eyes widened, and a moment later, an alarm sounded.

"What's going on?" exclaimed Ash in concern. Amanda faced her. "I use this to pick up readings of ships entering the atmosphere, so that the hangar is ready when they dock! And I just got a huge reading, the size of an armada."

The Guardians turned to face the Stranger. "Or at the least, by today," she finished with a grim expression. "We need to get geared up now!" yelled Matt, and the trio ran toward the exit of the hangar, followed by the Stranger and Holliday as each of their Ghosts began to transmit their armor onto them. As they left the hallway that led to the courtyard, they looked up at the sky in horror to see a combination of Fallen, Hive, and Cabal ships. They slowly descended into the atmosphere with menace in their approach.

The Vanguards too had rushed out at the sound of the Alarm. Shaxx's gaze led towards the clouds, slightly groaning at the sight of the army. Ikora's mouth was set in a thin line, thinking of ways to win. Zavala and Cayde both seemed to have a stance of battle ready, though the fight was far out of their reach. Guardians of all classes stood in awe, realizing that all their efforts in saving the Traveler had led to this moment. Then Aria noticed something.

"Wait, there's Cabal, Fallen, and Hive ships up there. But the Vex teleport, don't they? So where-" She didn't finish the sentence as several blueish white lights appeared in the center of the courtyard, and began producing clouds of smoke. "Vex!" yelled Shaxx, and he quickly unstrapped a hand cannon at his side and aimed. The other Vanguards followed suit, as Cayde drew out an auto rifle, and Ikora pulled out a pulse rifle. Zavala only raised his fists, as they were all he needed. Goblins began materializing a moment later, and as quickly as they came, they were shot down. Guardians had come out of their shock, and began opening fire in earnest, fighting to defend their home.

Matt, Ash, and Aria, now fully dressed in their gear, joined the fray, tossing in grenades and firing at the mono-eyed robots wherever they spotted them. The Stranger helped as well, wielding a yellow pulse rifle that had a futuristic look to it, and glowed with sparks of electricity near the barrel. Waves of Vex fell, but they only appeared to keep coming.

Matt wondered why no real resistance came from the Vex until a dark shadow loomed over the courtyard. Turning around, he saw a Cabal ship growing larger as it neared the top of the Tower, and began charging up a large energy cannon on its front. Matt barely had time to yell, "GET DOWN!" before he pulled his teammates to the ground as the turret released and an immense explosion blossomed in the middle of the courtyard. The sound rebounded off of the walls, and glass windows shattered nearly everywhere from the shockwave.

It was a few moments before Matt realized that the sounds of gunfire had been replaced with silence. He slowly lifted his head up to look at the destruction, as did Ash and Aria. The center of the courtyard was a blackened, smoking crater. Fires had sprung up on anything flammable. Bodies of Guardians lay in heaps as they'd been thrown from the epicenter, some of which had actually been blown apart he realized, as he spied the severed arm of a Guardian that looked to have belonged to a Hunter. Other Guardians that had been far away enough from the explosion began standing up, shaking their heads to clear out the ringing in their ears.

Zavala and the other Vanguards stood protected within a Ward of Dawn, weapons still at the ready. Ash turned to see the Stranger tending to Amanda, who now was missing the lower portion of her leg due to a flying piece of debris that had cleaved it off. The Shipwright just sat there staring at the stump as the Stranger tied a tourniquet with a ribbon of fabric that she'd torn off from her cloak. Ash looked around to see other Guardians in the same situation, bleeding from spots in their armor where serious shrapnel had punctured through.

The noise of a transmat sounded, and Ash turned to see the Messenger materialize in the middle of the Crater, flanked by two Cabal legionaries. He turned to gaze at the level of damage he'd caused, and his sight froze on Ash. His metallic face broke into a grin, and then a snarl as he realized the presence of the Stranger behind her.

"So, the traitor joins us! All three of the Darkness's soldiers together again!" he called, in a taunting tone. The Stranger left Holliday near the railing as the Shipwright grimaced from the pain and focused on not passing out. "I am no soldier of the Darkness," she began saying, her voice full of rage. "I would never allow myself to create such pain as you have inflicted here!" The Messenger laughed. "Oh that's right, you already had your fair share of events worse than this a few decades ago. Finally had enough Guardian slaying? Developed a sense of morality?" His expression turned dark, knowing. "You can't run away from your past as well as you think you have. It will forever stain your soul, just as much as mine." The words evidently stung on the Stranger's face, but she replied, "Maybe so." The she turned to Ash. "But at least I know that one of our souls will never again be tainted by the Darkness."

The Messenger growled. "She doesn't know what she's doing! If she had her memory, she'd see that what I'm doing was for us, for the good of all three of us! We were tired of being treated like garbage and slaves, the Darkness gave us a chance to turn that around!" He faced Ash, his eyes full of pleading. "I give you one last chance, reconsider which side you're fighting on! You don't belong with these blind sheep of the light, you are kin to the Darkness!"

He pulled out something from his pocket, and held it up so she could see it. It almost looked like a gem, and it was black, though it glowed with a slightly green aura around it."This is a data crystal I've been given from the Darkness itself, containing memories of who you used to be, who you will always be! Take it!" He then tossed it to her in an upward arc, and time itself seemed to stop as it flew forward, everyone's gaze following its path. After an eternity, it landed in Ash's open hand who had reached out due to instinct, and she began to absorb the contents.

Memories immediately flowed into her from the crystal, not showing her the past as though from a second perspective, but literally _forcing_  her to remember who she'd been. She remembered who she was as the Warrior, all of her years working alongside the Messenger and the Assassin. She felt the throat of a human crush between her fingers as her iron grip squeezed the life from them. She remembered all the lives she'd destroyed, killing Guardians in rampages and mercilessly annihilating- no, not quite mercilessly. She recalled different thoughts as well, thoughts that were dangerously close to mutiny.

She had wondered what all the fighting was for, if revenge was truly worth it. With every death that weighed upon her soul, she felt herself filling up with more and more regret over her actions. A few times, she'd allowed Guardians to get away, sparing them from the usually gruesome fates she'd had in store for them. She'd volunteered to take down the rumored uprising alone, secretly hoping to defect like the Assassin had, and possibly bring over the Messenger once she'd established a secure position. Unfortunately, it had all been a trap, and she'd fought nearly all of them to death before realizing that perhaps she deserved this, that this was her penance coming back at long last for all the wrong she'd done, and she'd allowed them to destroy her.

This all came in an instant, and she now knew who she was; she was the Warrior, defender of the Darkness, and slayer of Guardians. She was no longer Ash. But she didn't much care for how her life had turned out, and realized that Ash was a much better person to be than the Warrior could ever hope to dream. But as long as she, the Warrior existed, Ash could never come back to consciousness.

The Messenger looked at her with anticipation. "Well? Do you remember?" She returned his gaze, and nodded. "I knew it! I knew you would come back!" he yelled gleefully. His shoulders eased up from the tension that had been weighing on them. She turned behind her to see Matt and Aria, their mouths frozen in an unbelieving expression of pain and loss, as Ash had finally disappeared. The Messenger motioned to her. "Come, there isn't much time-"

She held up a hand to silence him. "I indeed remember who I am. Ash is no more, not as long as I and my memories remain in control. I also remember you, and all the years of work to the Darkness we carried out, dealing pain and destruction to everyone we came across." The smile began to fade from the Messenger's face. She glared at him. "I can see now that there is no changing you, your heart is too full of evil to ever be converted. But Ash's isn't."

Ash felt every pair of eyes in the courtyard land on her, not believing their ears. "These people have shown more care for me than I could ever hope to repay, except with one action." The Messenger's eyes widened. "Don't-!"

With her decision made, she crushed the black crystal in her hand, green gas escaping from it. As it disintegrated, the Warrior felt herself begin to die, and her memories fading. Her final thought almost made her laugh; that she was sacrificing her life for herself, but not herself. That another version of her would carry on, and live the life she wished she had always been able to.

Her body shook as the Warrior's personality and consciousness left her body violently, and then ceased. When she looked back up, her eyes were the electric blue eyes of Ash, the Guardian. She might not remember her past anymore, but she knew that the Warrior had sacrificed herself for Ash to live, so the memories obviously weren't worth it. She raised her hand in a rallying cry, yelling, "For the Traveler!"

A hundred voices echoed hers, and the many Guardians in the courtyard rushed into the center, jolted out of their motionless state of awe, charging the Messenger and the Cabal legionaries. The Cabal went down easily under all the gunfire, but the Messenger managed to fire off a few rounds of his Thorn, impaling a Titan and Warlock. As they fell, others moved to fill the gaps and he saw that this wasn't a fight he could win. Without another word, he transmatted out of the Tower's courtyard, leaving behind nothing but a blue grid of light.

Guardians began to cheer, and pump their fists in the air. Ash's chest heaved from all the adrenaline within her. She turned to see the Stranger helping Holliday limp across the open space, bringing her towards the infirmary like some of the other people who also walked in that direction. She spun around and began to stumble towards the railing so that she could hold onto something. She gripped it, and held herself there for a moment, allowing herself to gain back her strength. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She looked to see who it was. "Matt? What-" In an instant, he'd gripped her around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Without any warning, he leaned in and kissed her.

She had no immediate reaction, and did not know how to respond, especially with his lips pressed against her own metallic ones. After a moment, she just closed her eyes and let herself enjoy this moment after waiting for so long. A few seconds elapsed, and they broke apart.

"Well," said Matt with a laugh, "that was certainly a bit more metal-tasting than I thought it'd be. Kind of like a penny." She laughed too, at the absurdity of what he'd said. "Well, how'd you think it was gonna be?" He looked at her seriously. "I'll be honest, that was much better than I could have hoped for." She smiled.

Aria waved her hand from behind them. "Hello?" They both looked at her awkwardly. "I know that you guys finally managed to kiss, but aren't we still in the middle of a war? Like that thing?" She pointed towards the Cabal ship which had still been slowly moving farther away from the Tower, yet continued to face it. Again, Matt saw the cannons on the front charge up, and he realized that there wasn't anyone valuable here to prevent them from firing, the Messenger had already escaped.

It seemed as though as soon as he came to his conclusion, the ship fired two missiles which streaked towards them, and downward. At first, he thought they'd missed, before the missiles impacted and tore through the levels below the courtyard, and immediately the structural support began to collapse. The entire half of the courtyard closest to the railing where the trio of Guardians stood began to angle and crumble away from the other half, sliding towards open air. Matt lost his footing, and reached out to grab something as he, Ash, and Aria began to fall with the debris.

Aria fell over, and began to skid towards the edge of the building. She reached and managed to grab ahold of a section of railing that stuck out. Once she held onto it, her descent stopped, and she watched as two other Guardians flew past her, and sailed off the side towards open air, destined to impact against the ground far below. The thought of falling from this height made her faint, and she continued to hold on for dear life.

"Aria! Matt!" coughed Ash, her voice coming from farther above Aria. She glanced up to see the Exo's face poking out behind a large chunk of rock that jutted out of the slope. "I'm here!" called Aria, waiting for Matt's answer. "I'm a bit- busy!" grunted Matt, and it sounded as thought he was below Aria. Still holding onto the railing, she leaned backwards to see where he was. A large metal cable was hooked on the debris, and dangled down into the air. At the end of it was Matt, slightly swinging in the breeze and grasping at his lifeline with all his strength.

"Hold on, I'll get you!" yelled Aria, and she slowly lowered herself by letting her fingers slide down the railing as she crab walked down. She reached the end of possible ground for her to stand on, and she began to raise herself off her feet, extending her hand to grab the cable. She inched, closer, closer… and grabbed it!

She let out a sigh of relief, and used the cable to descend to the next foothold in an almost rock climber fashion. She placed her feet on the side of the building, and held a hand down to Matt, waiting for him to grab it. He began to reach out…

And then the line snapped.


	11. For all Current Readers

I do apologize, but I completely forgot about my story being on this site! See, I had primarily written it on fanfiction(dot)net, but I had also uploaded it here for maximum exposure. Truth be told, I don't see many people on this site, but if you've been following this story, be sure to read the rest of it on the original page at fanfiction(dot)net! In addition to the rest of this story, you'll be able to read its sequel, "Hunters of Light", and the sequel to that, "Dark Before Dawn". I hope you all find this and enjoy reading!

For a quick link, head here; <https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11378652/1/Guardians-Never-Die>


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